Black Walnut Brownies (Cupcakes)

BLACK WALNUT BROWNIE (CUPCAKES)

I made these without measuring ingredients, so …..

1 cup flour

1 tsp. baking powder

2 tbsp. dark cocoa

½ cup sugar – or more if you want.

1 egg

¼ cup sour cream

1 tbl. each butter and coconut oil – melted, but not too hot.

1 tsp. vanilla

1 dram black walnut flavoring (those tiny bottles of candy flavoring)

About ½ cup chopped walnuts (black walnuts, if you can find them).

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix together flour, baking powder and cocoa in one bowl. In another bowl ….
Beat the shit out of the egg, then mix in sour cream, vanilla and melted butter/oil and flavoring. Beat in the sugar.
Add the other dry ingredients and mix well. If it’s too thick, add some milk. If it’s too thin, add some flour. It should be a thick batter. Ladle into cupcake forms. Sprinkle some chopped nuts on top and bake about 25 min.   Or you can use an 8 in. square pan, and cut them into brownie squares.
Makes about 6-8 regular size cupcakes. 

Let me know if you try the recipe and if you like it!

allen

HolyCommunion

Holy Communion - Eating God.

Bishop Spong gives a thumb-nail history of what Christians today call Holy Communion in his latest news-email.  May I add that the Eucharist is not only a meal to be shared, or remembering Jesus (Do this in memory of Me), but it is also a communing with Jesus, who is in union with the Source of All Being. Remembering Jesus in the Eucharist, and believing He is present adds a metaphysical dimension to the experience of the Sacrament (holy encounter). Furthermore, God is everywhere and in all things, and I dare to say, God IS, and God is all things. Nothing exists outside of God, therefore all of creation is in God, and is part of God. There is nothing but God. Therefore, everything we do, everything we see, everything we hear, everything we touch, is God. Eating the Communion meal is taking a moment to thoughtfully commune with the Source of our being. It is a Sacrament, not just a ritual, but an experience to be entered into. And if all things are God, then our Communion is, above all, eating God.

The Law of Love

Matt. 7:12
“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. 
This is the law and the prophets.”

Wisdom

Laughter is sunshine you can hear.

anon.

Unity

Ya know, I don't fell I'm missing "doing things", like traveling, or sky-diving, or partying - because --- we are all experiencing for the sake of the One. If I don't do it, someone else does, and I experience it virtually. Sure, the perspectives of ten people doing the same thing  would each be unique, so am I denying the One an experience which only I can offer? I would not have enough time in a day to manifest every thought and desire.

As I enter more deeply into the Heart of the One, I, too, in that Unity, experience what a billion eyes and ears and bodies experience. I heard someone say recently, humans are bags of sensors.  Good phrase - and it pertains to all creatures, and all existence. All Life is a conglomeration of sensors, and through them, the Beloved lives, sees, hears, feels, IS - I AM.

Don't beam me up, Scottie, I'm already here.

Success

Mark 4: 21-25
"The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, and still more will be given to you.To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away."

What goes around ,comes around. Karma. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. To be successful, work hard. 

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.If you don't at least try, you will not succeed.

New Art - Blue Harpman

My latest piece - Blue Harpman - 24" x 34" - Acrylic - also available on note cards.

Migration

“The Migration”

Awesome it is –

a movement monumental –

fleeing oppression,

fleeing violence,

fleeing homeland

     and culture comfort.

Why?

We see the injustice

laying on the surface

like oil on water.

But that is what we see

with our eyes.

There is more –

Ask them what they see

with the eyes of their spirit ---

Perhaps they sense it,

perhaps not.

But there is something more---

They are moving

the best of their culture

to preserve it,

even if it appears

as oil on water,

or beans growing

among the corn.

Can you sense it?

It is coming ---

A great change.

And these souls,

fearful of merely

losing their lives,

are saving a Life

worth living.

For no more shall their homeland be –

Soon – just a hole in the earth

so big,

our eyes in space

will see it clearly

from their far-off balcony,

so high above

our blue home.

What will survive?

How shall we live?

Who will establish –

--- a new culture?

--- a new Life?

--- a new God?

agd 1.26.2016

Blizzard's Progress

Blizzard’s Progress

Swaddled in frozen white,

Sparkling in the sunlight,

The silence is welcome,

The feeling is wholesome.

Warmed,

   Fed,

      Rested.

A short hibernation

Before scurrying to my station,

Sounding the fife

In the continuing project of Life.

Sela.

agd 1.25.2016

Blizzard 2016 - White Quietude

White Quietude

It’s a blizzard out there!

But in here,

thankfully,

warmth and safety.

It’s quiet in here,

so silent

when all the

house functions cease,

save for occasional creaks.

It’s quiet in here,

save for the T-drone in my head

and my beating heart.

It’s quiet in here,

and out there, too –

It’s a beautiful, flaking,

blowing, blanketing,

white on whte

crippling blizzard.

Stay home,

and enjoy the silence.

agd 1.23.2016 Blizzard – really.

 Even St. Francis has his hood on!!

Why pray?

So, do you understand what "prayer" is?
It is not talking to some unseen being who you think is waiting on your word and judging your words and whether they are worthy of a response.
True prayer, even though it might be preceded by formula prayers, mantras, etc., is a means of connecting with that which IS - that which is Life - the Force, if you will (sometimes new terms make more sense than old concretized concepts). It is connecting with that to which you and I and all of creation are connected. I like to use the image of the Allium flower - hundreds of florets attached to the center orb - everything "material" is connected to the Source, or else it would not exist.
Religion is supposed to teach us how to re-connect to that Source, not be cow-towing to some mysterious, ethereal judging power or "god-person". That power is in you. That power is you. Connecting more intimately with that power gives the individual a handle on reality - it leads to the realization that all things are connected.
These comments are a response to something I read one "minister" comment on the changing perspectives in religious attitudes - "Most prayers invoke a god that doesn’t act in that way, yet I am still called to pray.”
Again, prayer is not to a "god" - a mysterious being who holds our destiny. Prayer is connecting with the Life which creates and animates this amazing universe on all its levels. And as we deepen that connection within ourselves, we cannot help but become aware of the connection all of life has to that Life at the center of everything. Everything is connected. 
Prayer (connecting to the Absolute) leads to developing those sacred attributes most faith-filled souls aspire to: compassion and love. Practicing love and compassion reconnect us to one another and change lives. As more souls learn to love, it is like lighting more candles in the darkness, and that light grows more brightly, and is seen by more souls who become en"light"ened, adding to the brilliance, and so on.
So, pray. Pray every day - learn to pray always - stay connected with your Source, and your love will radiate and transform the world in which you are walking.

It's Trans, you say?

It’s Trans, you say?

His wrapping is male,

but not her soul.

His physical gender

thrusts outward,

her astral draws inward.

Years of surging urge

shook his life,

so little understood by so many –

so easy for her to hide.

Past lives sensed –

some bearing new life,

serving the home,

pleasuring and

being pleasured

in pinafore and gown,

warm wraps,

hair combs and perfumes.

Other lives of challenging strength,

leading and protecting,

guiding, building,

hunting, plowing, siring.

And the gamut of “gender”

is layered within me –

no need to choose –

I am all of that,

no matter if wrapped

as male or female.

I am all of that,

and I will live it.

How to live

the androgynous life

takes a lifetime to learn.

But this is only one,

chosen in spirit ---

yes -- chosen – by me.

So live it, learn it, and grow.

Choose wisely next time,

and …. remember.

agd - Jan. 2016

New Snow

Frosty chill today,

Light snow sparkles in the grass,

The cat still explores.

agd 1.13.2016