MIRACLES

"MIRACLES ARE EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULES FOR WHICH SCIENCE HAS NOT FOUND ANY LOGICAL ANSWER OR EXPLANATION. A PHENOMENON SUCH AS A FLOWER OPENING IS ALSO A MIRACLE"

H.H.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

I wanted to write a post to celebrate the miracle of Life.

I wanted to express my deep gratitude for every single thing in my life, including my problems, because it is thank to them that I can challenge myself and learn to go through everything with a smile on my face.

It is thank to the OPPOSITES in life that I have learnt to appreciate.

I do not have many words today, so I express it with these photos taken by my daughter.

Love & Rainbow

Photos Copyright2010LaviniaMustapha

SOUTHAFRICAN EASTER

We had a lovely Easter day at my best friend house.

She lives in a beautiful place in the nature, 10 minutes driving from my home. The way to reach her place is really countryside; it is incredible, in Johannesburg! The road skirts riding schools and horses browse on the meadows like kings of Life, untouched by earthly things and weather. It is a breathless landscape and while I drive to reach the destination I cannot help feeling that time stops and I am in such a state of bliss. I am listening to wonderful acoustic guitar music; the kids are quiet, also captured by the beauty outside. I relax, and although I know I have got to get there, I wish I could stay and whisper in the horses’ ears…

There is a nice smell of homemade cooked food in the car; I have been cooking since early morning for our lunch, not at all the typical Italian dishes that we eat for Easter, but still very Italian. My friend is Portuguese from Mozambique, a very Mediterranean special soul. She’ll be cooking baccalao the national fish dish in Portugal. We reach her property, 10.000 square meters in the nature, with the most incredible view, her golden retriever Rocco running happily to us and her twins, who are 7 and are my youngest daughter’s best friends since we moved to South Africa welcome us saying “ hey guys you know that Limbs has caught and killed the snake?” yes, this is real. We are in Africa, after all. They are talking about the snake that was hiding in the garden; a real spitting African cobra…brrrr I shiver ….. At least we know that today the kids will be able to run for the Easter eggs hunt without risk of meeting the non-invited snake…

So I set out for the kitchen, hmmmm I have the feeling I am going to spend quite a long time in here today but I am so glad I can have a privileged time with my special friend catching up about our busy lives in the kitchen.

How many feelings do we share alone or with the beloved ones in the kitchen? It is such a central place in our nests… So we start having coffee and, after a while, probably a long while, we realize that the other friends will arrive in no longer that half an hour and we still have to cook the vegetarian lasagna and the baccalao! I get my focus back to the béchamel sauce and all the rest, forgetting about the coffee, the dogs, the kids and I feel grateful that I decided to cook half of the things early in the morning. So the sauce for the bruschetta is ready, the ribollita (typical Tuscan vegetable soup) as well, and the barley salad too!!! Phew, they could be hungry! Somehow we manage to get everything ready, the baccalao smells so good but I am vegetarian since January so I’ll give up the pleasure of good champagne and this delicious fish.

Everybody arrives and, as a usual, we’ll be eating much later that we would think, so there is plenty of time to finish cooking and lay down the table with a nice table cloth, candles, small chocolate eggs oh no! I forgot my camera again!

The kids look like real warriors. There are three couples of 7 years old twins (six!) plus my kids and this is so special! But everything goes well, some boys fall into the pool, some others climb the trees, the girls are interested in stealing make up and wearing heels but when the never ending lunch is finished for them they polished their plates in one minute they start waiting for the highlight of the day: the Easter eggs hunt. I can say that the dads have lots of fun in hiding few kg. of chocolate in the huge garden, probably some of this chocolate finds the way of their stomach before finding a quiet corner to hide…

The hunt is like Katrina, the hurricane. And it last 3 minutes. I mean, I was in the kitchen, probably looking for the sugar, and it was OVER! The boys found all the chocolate in such a short time that we have to beg them to share it with the girls. Now the concept of gallantry is really “stinky” for 7 years old dirty and barefoot boys! So what? We appeal to the more popular “sharing is caring” till the moment when the twin sisters of the twin boys decide that it is time to fight.

So they all start running after the boys and, in the general stampede, some of the eggs fall from the boys plastic bags.

Happy warriors girls with the new spoils in their hands. It is time to put on a DVD, something cool and not too exciting.

I look at the landscape and I see the most beautiful sunset. I know this is the sunset that our kids will be enjoying in few years time and I know, again, that we are all ONE.

In the next post I will write about the menu and the recipes !

Bon Appétit

Love&Rainbow

Copyright2010LorenzaVerdini

TOO MUCH OF EVERYTHING

Is this Christmas “tour de force” at table finished? I think so, at least for me from tomorrow.

Italians have spent 2.6 million Euros for the traditional Christmas’ Eve dinner, Christmas lunch and today’s lunch and I cannot help asking myself if we really need to exaggerate every year. We do not only over eat, we greet people, generously offering wine, panettone (the typical Christmas cake) and lots of other gourmet stuff. We cannot help it. Food is breathing. It is a way of being, a kind of identity. Tonight we are going to see some old friends, of course out for dinner… Help.

Mother Earth does not follow any festivity or tradition, She needs to detoxify from all the rubbish we threw on her in the last 60 years. So, following the amazing snowfall of last week, we are having 20 degrees more of temperature (a kind of +18 degrees) and lots of rain. This is not normal. This rain has brought the level of the local rivers so high that this morning there has been a flood in a village 15 minutes from where we are. The river was just too proud to show its power so, went over a whole village and destroyed the houses. I guess, by now, it is only an economical damage, luckily people are not hurt. I cannot help thinking that we are responsible of all the upside down in the climate field. I keep on thinking about all the tons of plastic, glass and paper waste of those days, particularly those festivity days. Recycling is a duty but I think that reducing the consumption of goods it is also a duty. Re-using is important, reducing quantities, saving energy and giving a new meaning to our actions. Santa did not bring gifts to the adults this year in my family (we agreed with him that we do not need anything superfluous), he tried to make the kids happy. They are. We explained them we asked Santa to make more kids happy in the world and to let the adults be happy with what they have. Before leaving to Italy my two youngest girls “cleaned up” their toys baskets (they actually halved them) and we sent the toys and dolls to Susan who takes care of 150 kids who have NOTHING, not even the parents and live in the poorest informal settlement (if you have time please have a look at www.seetrust.com this is a non profit social program ) so they could have a Christmas present. They loved to share their toys and give those kids the possibility to smile. When they asked me if Santa does not bring them toys, I had to think a few seconds before answering that Santa will bring them more important things like food and clothes, so we could provide the toys. What is taken for granted from us it is vital for others.

I don’t even know why I have written this post, it was not honestly planned. Some of you know that tomorrow I am going in the middle of the Black Forrest in Germany for a silent retreat, where I’ll be doing, yoga, meditation, seva (service) breathing techniques and ayurvedic massages. My husband will join. We’ll be cut off communication for a week. For the first time in my life I’ll leave my four kids and won’t be talking for a week. I’ll be surrounded by other silent people but I’ll be in my soul’s company… It is going to be intense and surely I'll get to know myself better. But no more words now...

I will miss you guys, honestly you have become part of my life, but I am looking forward to writing and sharing my experience with you once back. And reading your wonderful posts.

Love & Rainbow

Copyright2009LorenzaVerdini

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Yesterday I spent the morning at Woodlands, the small paradise where I go for body talk. I actually was waiting for a friend of mine. Some random thoughts arouse.

Woodlands. On a spring day that is actually a winter day. I like the nature’s jokes. The cold, the snow on the Drakensberg, the astounded faces of people in the street. But the forest is still here, in front of me with its small waterfall and the waving trees.

Nothing is static in life; immobility is an illusion, a joke, like today’s cold. Everything moves in the flow of energy that is Life.

We are an agglomerate of energy and knowledge, specks in this eternal flow. Maybe. Who really knows? Probably our galaxy will be swallowed by a black hole and everything will end in one second, exactly the way it started. But now, in this right moment, I know I AM. I want to feel and be NOW. This is a feeling of belonging and fusion with Life.

I always thought I could live only in an urban environment, because I needed to feel the pulsing city life. The street lights at night, the noise of cars driving nowhere, theatres, people shopping and restaurants. I had to be one of those ants, walking quickly to the nest, carrying a tiny wisp of straw.

Now I need to be surrounded by the nature, to live in between the trees and observe what happens around.

One of the privileges of living in this country is to watch the birds. They are not afraid of men so they come close.

My favourite one is the hoopoe. Few years ago we had lunch in a small restaurant in a medieval village in Tuscany,only 5 tables, we could hear everybody’s discussions. The food was exquisite, like everywhere in Tuscany, The restaurant’s name is The Hoopoe Tavern. I thought what a weird name! What is a hoopoe? Then I was told it is an exotic bird. They showed me a picture. I remembered about this small tavern when I saw a hoopoe here, for the first time. Everyday I see a hoopoe now. Life’s flow has brought me far away, from the urban pigeons to the African hoopoe. To a small African spa, where the trees are dancing, the birds are singing and the river is laughing.

Joy, love, eternity. But perhaps I am not even far away. I exhale a breath that will reach somebody else thousands of kilometres from me. I wonder where my father is, where is his energy now. In which body… Nothing happens by chance. There is connection between all the things we do, the choices we make and the people we meet.

This morning I read the words I needed to read to wake up again the courage to write and be myself. The person I am meant to be. How many persons live in me? The mother, the woman, the girl, the wife, the lover,the friend…

Mmmhh... the writer.

Love & rainbow

Copyright2009LorenzaVerdini

SOUTH AFRICAN PETS

No words for this post. Enjoy it.

I LOVE STORMS AND PASTA

In half of our planet it is going to be winter soon. As winter lover I will envy you a lot but… I am going to enjoy the sub tropical summer here which means: very hot temperature without sweating because Johannesburg is 1.700 m. above the sea level. The feeling is that your skin is burning but you don’t sweat. You become sun block addicted because the sunrays are very dangerous  (bronze medal after Australia and California) and spend half of your day looking for the shade at least myself. But Mother Nature gives us a treat. Summer is the time of the most raging storms I have ever experienced in my short life. They usually announce themselves in the evening, when it is time to water the garden I tell you Mother Nature is perfect and to start collecting the kids from the pool who play the game “mussel and rock: I want to live in the water”.

So, after the heat of the day, the sky starts to change colours. Big grey clouds elbow to come over us, ten minutes and there is no brightness in the sky anymore. And then…

The fury of the elements. Lightening in the sky have you ever seen horizontal lightning? I have, only here, tons of water sometimes mixed to hailstones come down from Heavens to our heads. It does not usually last long I guess it would destroy everything around between 10 minutes and half an hour but it is enough to:

 

1. Be grateful for what we have, mainly because we live in proper houses; nearby there are informal settlements where most people dwell in boxes of corrugated sheet iron, sized 2sqm by 2. They have NOTHING except what comes down from Heavens, including the lightning and the hailstones.

 

2. Thank Mother Nature because tonight the temperature has dropped down and we can sleep well without fighting for the best fan’s position.

 

3. Enjoy the show of the blossoming nature. After 5 months of dryness, everything starts to be green again and it is a pure joy for the spirit and the eye.

 

4. Realise that this is a blessed country, where the water is not really lacking unless the human stupidity plays its role

 

5. Feel that we are witnessing something special and primordial.

 

I love the rain so I know I am not impartial, and when there is no evening storm I look a little disappointed at the sky enquiring if I should have sung louder today.

 

My four children love these storms they are nuts like me and roam around cheerful and excited every evening, smelling what’s for dinner.

Pasta! I don’t feel like cooking Indian tonight. The storm inspired me for a winter lovely pasta recipe.

 

So it is going to be PENNE WITH DRIED PORCINI MUSHROOMS.

 

500 GR PENNE (consider 80 gr. per person)

LOTS OF ITALIAN PARSLEY

GARLIC (1 clove per person)

OLIVE OIL (3 table spoons)

250 ML OF COOKING CREAM

DRIED PORCINI MUSHROOM (2 handful)

 

Before explaining I want to tell you that I learnt this easy recipe from a chef.

 

Heat the crushed garlic in a pan with the olive oil but don’t let it burn. Add all the finely chopped parsley and let it warm up with the garlic only for a few minutes.

Add the mushrooms (cut them in small pieces with the scissors) that you have softened in a cup of warm water and keep the water on a side.

Switch off the stove and add the cooking cream, salt and pepper. Stir in well.

 

If you think the sauce is not liquid enough, add some of the mushroom water.

 

Cook your penne, AL DENTE please, season with the sauce and eat immediately. Something important in our culture is to honour your food eating it immediately. There is no point in cooking perfectly a dish of pasta if you park it for 10 minutes in the kitchen before serving it.

 

Let me know how it was…

 

Happy winter and happy pasta to everybody.

 

Love & Rainbow