Watermelon Frosé

Greetings all!

It is getting hot – and this drink looks lovely and refreshing!

Image and recipe from 

https://www.totalwine.com/cocktail-corner/how-to-make-a-watermelon-frose

Serves: 4   

Preparation Time: 8 Hours

Difficulty Level: Medium

Ingredients

• 1 Standard 750mL bottle of Rosé
• 1/2 cup fresh watermelon syrup
• 1/2 cup fresh watermelon juice
• 1/2 Lime, juiced
• Watermelon slices for garnish

Instructions

• The night before, pour Rosé into 2 ice cube trays and freeze.
• In a blender combine Rosé and ice cubes, watermelon syrup, watermelon juice, and lime juice.
• Blend until it is a slushy-like consistency.
• Scoop the Frosé into your glasses and garnish with a Watermelon Wedge.

Bon Appetit! Let me know how you like it! Stay cool and safe!

Kindness

Greetings all!

While our world might be spinning out of control, let’s choose kindness - towards ourselves and towards others. Be kind and stay safe!

As seen on: https://tinybuddha.com/category/fun-and-inspiring/

CALM: June-2020 Calendar

Greetings all!

Here is the June-2020 calendar from CALM: lots of wonderful suggestions and ideas for self-reflection and self-care. I love the June 19 question!

Take a moment to think what anchors you and makes you happy, grateful, and calm. And remember to breathe!

Image from https://pixabay.com/photos/organizer-calendar-schedule-791939/

June 1 - Be aware of the armor you wear. Consider how it protects you & how it holds you back. Explore softening the armor you no longer need.

June 2- Journal about a transformation you have made in your life.

June 3 - Examine how your life philosophies connect with your state of happiness. Notice if you’re deferring your happiness to some future date. 

June 4 - What anchors you during stormy times. Take a moment to connect to that anchor and ground yourself.

June 5 - Pause during a busy part of your day and name 10 things that you are grateful for in your life.

June 6 - At lunch contemplate the many factors that made it possible for this food to be on your plate. Who worked to make this lunch possible?

June 7 - When you feel that impulse to blame, ask yourself if you have any responsibility in what’s happening.

June 8 - Hold space for someone in your life who’s going through a hard time. Let them speak their truth.

June 9 - Move through the ups and downs of your day with positivity, being thankful for what you have, and not dwelling on the negative.

June 10 - Step off the train of addictive thoughts. Remind yourself that just because you have a thought, it doesn’t mean you have to follow it.

June 11 - What parts of yourself do you hide from the world? This part of you needs your love, acceptance, and compassion today.

June 12 - Ask questions without expecting an answer but rather to cultivate a sense of curiosity, practice unknowingness, and inspire wonder.

June 13 - Use the exhale as a guide to help you release habits, tendencies, or thoughts that no longer serve you.

June 14 - Do one thing to bring your day into a better balance. If you’re not sure where to start, try balancing your inhale with your exhale.

June 15 - With compassion, explore the why behind your actions. Why do you do what you do? Notice if you’ve never questioned a particular habit.

June 16 - Inch outside your comfort zone today. Take a risk and say yes to a healthy challenge or new experience in your life.

June 17 - Connect with the artist within. Whether through paper maché, break dance, or poetry, allow yourself to create unselfconsciously.

June 18 - Before your dinner offer gratitude for the food in front of you. Check out Calm’s Mindful Eating Series to be led through this practice.

June 19 - If your mind was a weather pattern today, what would it be?

June 20 - Pay attention to your breath, noticing the subtle variation and nuance in each moment.

June 21 - Listen to the mind and heart equally when you’re making decisions today. Notice when they agree and disagree.

June 22 - Practice patience and allow things to unfold in their own time.

June 23 - Empathy is being with someone’s pain, even feeling it with them, without trying to make it better. Offer empathy to someone today.

June 24 - Notice any habitual ways you create unnecessary noise. Make space for more silence and notice what shifts and opens up for you.

June 25 - As you brush your teeth, just brush your teeth. Be present and focus attentively, relish the sensations, sounds, and taste.

June 26 - As you make choices about food, shopping, and transportation, pause and reflect on each individual action.

June 27 - Practice mindful eating. Open your senses, eat slowly, and fully taste each bite.

June 28 - Use the Open-Ended Meditation to play a bell every 30 minutes. Each time you hear the bell invite yourself back to the present moment.

June 29 - Practice loving-kindness toward yourself today. May I be happy. May I be well. May I be safe. May I be at peace.

June 30 - Listen to someone else’s perspective today.

Source: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57b5ef68c534a5cc06edc769/t/5e0a2a7be3302c0f49e73931/1577724550186/2020+Daily+Calm+Calendar.pdf

Washing Your Hands the Star Trek Way

This made me chuckle! Stay safe and healthy!

Image from https://twitter.com/tanyaofmars/status/1236514848554602496/photo/1

Penguins and the Shape of the Galaxies

Greetings all!

If you are really bored at home and/or worried out of your mind, here are two interesting citizen-science projects that will contribute to science research and will pause your worrying about everything that is happening in the world right now.

1) Penguin Detective: You can help scientists better understand and protect penguins by looking at the photographs taken near birds’ colonies and identifying the birds OR by looking for guano on satellite data. If you did not know, guano is penguin poop and is an important scientific tool! Apparently, scientists can estimate the number of birds in a colony by the area covered in guano.  

Image from

https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=287440&picture=penguins

2) Galaxy Discover: If for some reason you do not want to look at penguin poop, then you might be interested in Galaxy Zoo! This project involves guessing the shape of a galaxy by looking at the images from observatory programs. Astronomers use the shape of a galaxy to learn about its history. And we humans are quite good at pointing out “Hey, that’s a weird shape” (in fact, we might be better at that than computers). So take a look and who knows you might discover something new and exciting in the sky!

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/Harvard-Smithsonian CfAhttps://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/spitzer-20070604.html

SOURCE:

You can find links to these projects and additional details here: https://www.space.com/penguins-search-galaxy-zoo-citizen-science-during-coronavirus.html

Stay safe and healthy!  

"There's Something Different on This Golden Morning"

Greetings all!

I recently came across an inspiring poem by Amanda Gorman, America's inaugural Youth Poet Laureate. Her words about hope, courage, solidarity, gratitude, and kindness really resonated with me, and I hope you enjoy her poem as much as I did. Stay safe and healthy!

“…When this ends, we'll smile sweetly, finally seeing

In testing times, we became the best of beings.”

  

Image from https://www.pexels.com/photo/flowers-garden-hope-rock-1360015/

I thought I'd awaken to a world in mourning.

Heavy clouds crowding, a society storming.
But there's something different on this golden morning.
Something magical in the sunlight, wide and warming.

I see a dad with a stroller taking a jog.
Across the street, a bright-eyed girl chases her dog.
A grandma on a porch fingers her rosaries.
She grins as her young neighbor brings her groceries.

While we might feel small, separate, and all alone,
Our people have never been more closely tethered.
The question isn't if we will weather this unknown,
But how we will weather this unknown together.

So on this meaningful morn, we mourn and we mend.
Like light, we can't be broken, even when we bend.

As one, we will defeat both despair and disease.
We stand with healthcare heroes and all employees;
With families, libraries, schools, waiters, artists;
Businesses, restaurants, and hospitals hit hardest.

We ignite not in the light, but in lack thereof,
For it is in loss that we truly learn to love.
In this chaos, we will discover clarity.
In suffering, we must find solidarity.

For it's our grief that gives us our gratitude,
Shows us how to find hope, if we ever lose it.
So ensure that this ache wasn't endured in vain:
Do not ignore the pain. Give it purpose. Use it.

Read children's books, dance alone to DJ music.
Know that this distance will make our hearts grow fonder.
From a wave of woes our world will emerge stronger.

We'll observe how the burdens braved by humankind

Are also the moments that make us humans kind;
Let every dawn find us courageous, brought closer;
Heeding the light before the fight is over.
When this ends, we'll smile sweetly, finally seeing
In testing times, we became the best of beings.

~ You can hear Amanda read the poem here: https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/amanda-gorman-youth-poet-laureate-coronavirus-pandemic/

The Mayonnaise Jar and the Two Cups of Coffee

When things in your lives seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the two cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things — your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions — and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else — the small stuff.

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first — the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

As read here: https://www.popsugar.com/smart-living/Mayonnaise-Jar-Two-Cups-Coffee-Story-34745305