thoughtful thursday

hello.
ah, Thursday!
this morning I made breakfast sandwiches and finally figured out a good way to make eggs for 12 people. I scrambled around 16 eggs together and then took a half sheet pan, lined it with butter and poured in the eggs- added some grated mozz, and baked for 20 min or so, cut in to 12 rectangles and then scooped up each one, folded over and had perfect scrambled eggs for a sandwich- they were so fluffy, and so easy to clean. I'm a fan.
The timber framing class is out on site today putting up their structure (!!!) so they made themselves sammies at breakfast and everyone was out of my hair for lunch! so I made Isa's fudgy wudgy blueberry brownies, and some blueberry muffins for tomorrow. We are getting solar panels installed on the roof and one of the burly 'grow solar' guys is a vegan- and has been for 16 years...pretty cool.

I've been really frustrated yesterday and today with middle aged (white) men with entitlement issues who are not signed up for the meal plan but come and eat breakfast, help themselves to things in the fridge, and eat our fruit, cookies, etc. Why do they think that this is OK? I know that $25 is a lot of money- but for 3 meals a day, all freshly made, often meat, help yourself to as much food as you want, juice, coffee and dessert- it's really not a bad deal. \
so, thinking of them, and trying to be mindful I leave you with some Thich Nhat Hanh- so we can all take a few seconds to be grateful, and to be kind and compassionate (I really need to work on being compassionate to a few I 'm frustrated with)

Nourishing Awareness
When we sit down to dinner and look at our plate filled with fragrant and appetizing food, we can nourish our awareness of the bitter pain of people who suffer from hunger. Every day, 40,000 children die as a result of hunger and malnutrition. Every day! Such a figure shocks us every time we hear it. Looking deeply at our plate we can "see" Mother Earth, the farm workers, and the tragedy of hunger and malnutrition.
We who live in North America and Europe are accustomed to eating grains and other foods imported from the Third Worlds, such as coffee from Colombia, chocolate from Ghana, or fragrant rice from Thailand. We must be aware that children in these countries, except those from rich families, never see such fine products. They eat inferior foods, while the finer products are put aside for export in order to bring in foreign exchange. There are even some parents who, because they do not have the means to feed their children, resort to selling their children to be servants to families who have enough to eat.
Before each meal, we can join our palms in mindfulness and think about the children who do not have enough to eat. Doing so will help us maintain mindfulness of our good fortune, and perhaps one day we will find ways to do something to help change the system of injustice that exists in the world. In many refugee families, before each meal, a child holds up his bowl of rice an says something like this: "Today, on the table, there are many delicious foods. I am grateful to be here with my family enjoying these wonderful dishes. I know there are many children less fortunate, who are very hungry." Being a refugee he knows, for example, that most Thai children never see the kind of fine rice grown in Thailand that he is about to eat. It is difficult to explain to children in the "overdeveloped" nations that not all children in the world have such beautiful and nourishing food. Awareness of this fact alone can help us overcome many of our own psychological pains. Eventually our contemplation can help us see how to assist those who need our help so much.
Thich Nhat Hanh