Taking Stock in Your Life

I found fifteen different uses for the word 'stock.'  All the way from livestock, to finance stock, to taking stock in one's life.  Today, I'm sharing with you chicken stock....as a way of taking stock in your life.  The origin for the word 'stock' in Old English as well as in Old High German means 'tree trunk.'

I think of the Tree of Life.

Watercolor by Teresa

Adding a daily warm mug of chicken stock or chicken soup to your diet is highly nourishing.

Watercolor/mixed media by Teresa

"Why is chicken soup superior to all things we have, even more relaxing than Tylenol?  It is because chicken soup has a natural ingredient which feeds, repairs and calms the mucous lining in the small intestine.  The inner lining is the beginning and the ending of the nervous system.  It is easily pulled away from the intestine through too many laxatives, too many food additives (Including sugar!)...and parasites.  Chicken soup heals the nerves, improves digestion, reduces allergies, relaxes and gives strength."   Ageless Remedies from Mother's Kitchen by Hanna Kroeger

Chicken broth is  mild tasting...you can add ANY of your favorite vegetables to the stock to make a delicious soup.  The broth is soothing and provides a wealth of nutrients that are very easy for the body to absorb like calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulfur, collagen (gelatin), trace minerals and probably a whole lot more! Chicken broth can help reduce inflammation, heal the gut, and boost the immune system.  If sugar cravings are eating away at your core- your Tree of Life- then take a daily dose of chicken broth.

Nourish the core stock, yep, your gut, the roots,

 in your Tree of Life (YOU!)  

with chicken broth. 

Chicken Stock Recipe 

with Chicken Feet

Ok, lets talk chicken feet for just a minute.  Chicken feet are full of gelatin which is found in cartilage and connective tissue.  This gelatin is downright healing from common colds to malnutrition (from sugar addiction).  It boosts the immune system and improves bone density.... super important if caffeine is high in your diet (it steals calcium from your bones). Your broth is alchemy at its best if it is gelatinous.  So put those chicken feet in the pot.  I get mine from my local co-op and they are super clean...weird to look at... but just toss them in!

My favorite recipes for chicken stock are from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Sally Fallon,  the Heal your Gut cookbook by Hilary Boynton and Mary G. Brackett and just google it and you'll get it.  Organic and pasture raised chickens and ingredients are important, too!

Fundamental transformation of thinking and authentic living 

begins in the gut.

Transformation Requires Authenticity

Mint and cucmuber...in a smoothie.

Transformation is a slow
 process

I am finding myself hungry for that cappuccino, ready to reach for that cinnamon roll, ravenous for that sugar.  I feel rumblings of anxiety about doing it right.  How do I write a blog about transformation when it is the hardest thing I have 

ever done?  Perhaps even verging on 'impossible'?  MORE than accountability....this blog is demanding authenticity.

Add coconut water to a smoothie.

Transformation requires authenticity

But I am authentic, right? I ask myself.  My friends say I am a sincere person....that must mean I am authentic too.

 I know, for sure, that if you grab for things in your external life to make you happy, to comfort and self soothe the gripping fear that visits your psyche more times in a day than you care to admit, then authenticity takes a back seat.

And so does transformation.

I know that each of us can name what we grab for when we want to 'cheek out' or self soothe, ...whether it is comfort foods, alcohol, drugs, shopping, sex, channel surfing, gaming... you fill in the blank...but if that is the primary way we dig deep to be with ourselves in an uncomfortable moment, then authenticity is missing.

To be nobody but myself- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make me somebody else- means to fight the hardest battle any human can fight, and never stop fighting.  e.e.cummings

Brene Brown, in the her book, The Gifts of Imperfection,  writes about a whole hearted and authentic living.   She says, "I am never more courageous than when I am embracing imperfection,, embracing vulnerabilities, and setting boundaries with people in my life."
Gentle, kind and firm.
If you mess up, pick up where you left off.
This is a lifetime, a lifestyle, a lifeways.  Perfction is not the goal. Ongoing health is!

Slow and steady wins the race.

What's the race?

 A life well lived.  A personal journey of wholeness, health in gut, clarity in thinking, joy in the soul.

 Slow and steady wins the race.

Cucumber Mint Smoothie

Tip: Peel  a bunch of bananas.  Cut them in half and place them in a tupperware container in the freezer.  You will have ready access to frozen bananas all week to put into your smoothies!

In a blender add:

1 peeled cucumber

handful of mint leaves

frozen banana

2 pitted dates (optional)

coconut water

ice cubes optional

The Best Time To Start Is Now

Procrastination is full of excuses.  

I love new beginnings and I always set the start date for further down the road.

"I will begin my New Year's resolution  on the first of the year..."
"I will begin on the first of the month..."
"I'll start at a holy time of year, a special sacred festival to mark a new beginning...."
"I'll do 40 days...that is a number with significant impact for change..."
"I'll begin after the weekend...on Monday"
"Next month is birthday month and that will be too tempting so I'll start after that..."
"I'll start when there is less stress, less distraction, less going on...."
"I'll start tomorrow...."

 I'll start today, in the middle of the day, no special time... 

just right now.

For A New Beginning

by John O'Donohue

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,

Where your thoughts never think to wander,

The beginning has been quietly forming,

Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,

Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,

Noticing how you willed yourself on,

Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety

And the gray promises that sameness whispers,

Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,

Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,

And out you stepped onto new ground,

Your eyes young again with energy and dream,

A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear

You can trust the promise of this opening;

Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning

That is at one with your life's desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;

Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;

Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

For A New Beginning is by John O'Donohue-Irish philosopher, poet, priest and 

the poem is from To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

Unrequited Love with Coffee

The Alchemical Kitchen

"Coffee is not my cup of tea." Author Unknown

Unrequited Love with Coffee

by Teresa Thorman

Coffee beans roasted and freshly ground 

with steamed frothy and creamy milk 

poured into handcrafted clay mug

sits in perfect landscape waiting...

for that first sip... while the aroma 

offers memories of lovemaking 

and fireside chats, 

of writing at dawn as the first 

rays of light pour inspired words 

like ink into my pen.

Watercolor by Teresa Thorman

The smell of memories waft

and linger but oh the taste 

of that liquid brown gold 

confirms the quiet in life, 

the stillness of evening,

the hush before inspiration whirls...

a perfect match, coffee and me.

Adrenal fatigue slyly dropped by

and stayed for years on the side

snitching and munching on energy bits

discreetly replaced by coffee refills.

Seratonin skipped her visits to the brain

thus rhythm of sleep cried out at night, 

while mood in balance teetered to and fro.

Anger came in to keep the peace and

affronted he was when resistance rebelled!

A viscous cycle ensued... 

anxiety and stress the hamster 

on the adrenal wheel chasing a love 

no beginning, no end.

Liquid brown scrap is really the dross

The metal that poisons, deadens and rots

both brain and gut and squashes the heart.

But wait! I feel a pulse of a faintly beating heart

that pulls a memory from long ago

in Tante Lisa’s Garden of Eden where

God’s gifts were my pure delight:

The creek with its frogs, the trees full 

of walnuts, apples, plums and cherries;

fresh picked rasberries made into jam, 

potatoes and carrots right from the ground

and salad bedecked with radish and tomato.

A table is set with cut roses 

where family and friends gather to partake

in the substance sprung from a kitchen with joy 

and stories are shared

and songs are sung

and poetry recited

and love alights 

renewed and reborn

in every moment

we choose

to transform

what is dross

that deadly lead

into gold.

Mixed Media by Teresa Thorman

I had fun writing that poem, knowing of course, that coffee does not affect everyone in the same way it affects me.  It wreaks havoc in my body, and yet; my father, who is 83 years old, rarely skips a day of black coffee with sugar and loves a good afternoon espresso when he visits our house.  Different strokes for different folks.  So, back to tea it is.  Yes, I will have to face that deep, deep longing when I smell coffee, and that perfect morning that begs for a cup, and that crisp craving calling to complete a perfect moment captured in a cappuccino...yep.  Stand in the river of your coffee grief and ask for a cup of tea:)

Acrylic and pen by Teresa Thorman

About The Alchemical Kitchen

The Alchemical Kitchen

Fundamental transformation of thinking and authentic living

 begins in the gut.

The Alchemical Kitchen IS the gut.  Whether I am cooking in the kitchen, painting a canvas, having a conversation, parenting, fulfilling a career or .....you can fill in the blank, the gut and the brain come along for the ride. This blog is a journey of transformation starting in the gut...weaving in the heart and balancing out the thinking.  It's about forgiveness and food; about letting go; about balance between the positive and the negative....some like it raw, some like it cooked...this is about being in the middle of the two.

In my family, we experience periodontal disease, chronic fatigue, allergies, skin rashes, attention deficit, mood swings and low rumblings of anxiety.  In my extended family including my husband's  family we have a smorgasbord of illness including fybromyalgia, Hashimoto's disease, many cases of diabetes, more periodontal disease, knee and hip replacements along with heart disease, leukemia and a case of schizophrenia and suicide from PTSD.  

I don't believe my family stands alone in symptoms of distress and dis-ease.  With children of my own, the rising diabetes and suicide rate among teenagers is disconcerting and troubling.  In a nation of freedom where we have the choice to be creative and innovative, our thinking capacity is growing mushy and lukewarm with the mounting multitude of entertaining distractions from food choices to technological gaming.   This blog is a documented effort to do something by starting in my kitchen with foods that nourish the gut and feed the brain.  My certification of authority is derived from my experience as mother, wife,  friend, and a  U.S. citizen in the land of the free and the home of the brave.  My braveness is endeavoring to publish an authentic blog and my leadership comes solely from my transparency to give change a chance and transform dross into gold. I hold it to be true that by changing the chemistry of my gut, I can change the quality of my life into thoughts,  actions and deeds of higher merit.