I’m Just Saying

In Which I Say Aloha: Metaphysical Motivation + Mango Madness

/ Ally Bean / 254 Comments

Photo by Shutterbug75 on Pixabay

Talking About Metaphysical Motivation Here

Years ago I had a yoga teacher who based each week of her class on one of the Seven Huna Principles. Are you familiar with them?

I’d forgotten about them but I found them lurking in a folder in my desk drawer where I’d tossed the folder in one of my many scattered moments. The folder contained a formal list of the principles attributed to Serge Kahili King and some of my hand-written notes about them.

Allow me to explain.

According to an article HERE at LearnReligions.com*, in the Hawaiian language ‘huna’ means ‘secret’ as in connecting to your highest self. By using the Huna Principles as guides to better personal understanding, you can “bring about healing and harmony through the power of the mind.”

I’ve listed the principles first with the Hawaiian word, then King’s definition of the word. In the brackets that follow I include information from my hand-written notes, the source of which was that yoga teacher years ago.

THE SEVEN HUNA PRINCIPLES

IKE – The world is what you think it is [This is awareness as in SEEING]

KALA – There are no limits, everything is possible [This is freedom as in CLEARING]

MAKIA – Energy flows where attention goes [This is concentration as in FOCUSING]

MANAWA – Now is the moment of power [This is persistence as in PRESENCE]

ALOHA – To love is to be happy with [This is joy as in BLESSING]

MANA – All power comes from within [This is confidence as in EMPOWERING]

PONO – Effectiveness is the measure of truth [This is wisdom as in DREAM-WEAVING]

Bingo Bango That’s Our Mango

For me this year March Madness has been Mango-centric.

My infatuation with mangoes started years ago when we visited Hawaii. Sure, when you think of that state pineapple gets top billing, but Hawaii also grows the yummiest mangoes that ever were.

I’m always on the lookout for recipes that involve fruit mangoes**.

Thus when I saw a recipe in The Washington Post’s Voraciously food section, I was intrigued. The recipe was for Mango Pudding [available HERE on the other side of a paywall that just goes to prove that Mr. Bezos is mean & greedy]. I tried it and it’s easy to make because you use a blender. I’ve made it a few times now, tweaking it each time to add a bit more flavor.

Then while researching something else I stumbled over a recipe for Mango Pie not hidden behind a paywall, available HERE on THE WOKS OF LIFE.  It’s like a peach pie with similar spices and a top crust. It looks and tastes yummy with whipped cream on it, of course.

And finally last week I found a food network recipe, available HERE sans paywall, for a Mango Bellini. This seemed like a no-brainer. I can’t figure why it never occurred to me to make one before, so I rectified that situation and made one. Then another one. Quite tasty, say the residents of Casa Bean.

* This article has what it calls a Reference Library section at the end so if you want to learn more about Huna go there.

** Should you want to know a little more about why I refer to them as “fruit mangoes” read my answer to Cee’s 2017 Share Your World question: What quirky things do people do where you are from?

Questions of the Day

What do you think of the Huna Principles? Does the wisdom contained within them ring true with you? If so, which one or ones resonate with you?

Referring back to the question I shared in the footnote above, I’ll ask you: What quirky things do people do where you are from?

Do you like mangoes? If you don’t, what’s wrong with you?

~ • 🥭 • ~

Pondering A Quandary: Is The Goal Of Setting Goals A Good Goal?

/ Ally Bean / 243 Comments

from Gretchen Rubin

Welcome to my quandary of the month.

I took Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies Quiz [HERE] to learn what my personality tendency is. I am a QUESTIONER.

As much as I enjoy irony and want to say I question that result, I don’t. It sounds right to me. And it explains, at least to me, why lately I’ve been having a difficult time deciding what to write about here.

Does this happen to you, too?

It’s not like I’m not writing, totally bereft of words, wondering where Muse is hiding.  Nope, I’m writing oodles but I’m never satisfied with what I write. I have an idea, write a post, edit it into perfection, then question whether I want, or need, to talk about whatever I wrote.

Thus I delete many a post and try writing another one, hoping I’ll stumble on a different idea or point of view that seems worthy of publishing here.

Blogging has become one big old game of Ally Try Again.

And the thing is that after all these years of writing a personal blog my hesitation seems odd to me. I’m a free spirit [read my tagline] so wouldn’t it follow that I should just know | intuit | reason what to write about?

In the past that’s been the case.

However lately, much to my consternation, I’ve been floundering confounded by a strange tension in my mind about what to do next. And I don’t like feeling like this, it doesn’t seem like proactive me, yet here we are.

from Witchy Moms

So in an attempt to make sense of my behavior I decided to explore the concept of setting goals. Perhaps I need some? Could that be my issue?

I do tend to fly by the seat of my pants here.

Have you noticed?

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary a GOAL is: “the end toward which effort is directed : AIM.” Going a bit further, the dictionary suggests synonyms include but are not limited to: objective, intent, purpose.

In addition to the basic dictionary definition there’s always that business dude, Peter Drucker, and his old chestnut S.M.A.R.T.  This acronym stands for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time bound.

It’s trite, but utilizing it could help me reverse my recent descent into indecision, I guess.

The thing is that the goals I’m contemplating, ones that’d resonate with me, wouldn’t be based on numbers because that’d be silly. I don’t need to focus on word count or publishing deadlines or reader engagement stats to feel like I have it going on here.

Instead I’m thinking about goals based on a personal sense of purpose. Something like a manifesto, but not so intense. It’d be a declaration of my raison d’être stated in the simplest way possible, perhaps embodied in a few NUDGE WORDS, maybe from the Growth or Adventure categories as explained HERE?

My mythical set of goals would be something I could use as motivation, a kind of thesis statement meant to keep me on the right track so that I’d not waste time pussyfooting around in my mind trying to decide what to write about.

Or maybe I’m overthinking this? That’s a possibility too. Following that line of reasoning I have to wonder if I should get over myself and simply show up, then write something, anything even.

Perhaps THAT is the goal after all– and I already know it.

Thoughts, anyone?

from Disappointing Affirmations

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

If you write a personal blog do you find yourself confused about what to write about next? Never? Sometimes? Always? How do you handle that?

Do you tend to set goals for everything you do? Some things you do? None of the things you do? How has that worked out for you?

Do you agree or disagree with the statement: a good enough something, whatever it might be, is better than waiting for a perfect nothing?

A Thursday Thirteen List: Stuff & Things I’m Waiting For, Late Winter Edition

/ Ally Bean / 256 Comments

Carpe diem? If only…

1. the kitchen table is in need of repainting [the pedestal part] and refinishing [the top part]. waiting for a bunch of sunny days in a row to do that.

2. an old diary written by my great-grandfather sits in a box in a closet in a spare bedroom. waiting to have the time to approach the historical society about it, hoping to donate it [and a bit more of his stuff] to them.

3. the last birch tree in the front yard has died and needs to be removed, stump included. waiting for dryer weather so the tree company can do that.

4. my desk is piled high with books, papers, stuff plus my normal pens, pencils, notepads. waiting for the muse of organization to move me to sort through the mess so I might feel less scattered.

5. the railing on the stairs between the first and second floors needs to be repainted. waiting for the gumption to do this tedious project whilst trying to decide which color to paint it this time.

6. the granite counters in the kitchen and laundry room are due for their annual sealing. waiting for a convenient time when we won’t need to use the kitchen for a few days to do that.

7. a few restaurant gift cards for places with lovely outdoor patios are taking up space in my wallet. waiting for the weather to get clear and warm, like into the 70s, so we can dine al fresco.

8. the posts that support the deck are going to be encased in the same Trex fascia that we used when we had the deck built. waiting for the product to come in and the exterior home improvement company to have the time to install it.

9. many old mirrors + framed art are sitting in the basement ready to go to Goodwill. waiting for the local donation center to reopen after its renovation is finished mid-March.

10. the husband is not really as unemployed as one might think he’d be after retiring. waiting until he gets his side hustles up and running to his satisfaction so that we might talk about going on vacation.

11. an ancient laptop sits uncharged in a guest bedroom that I hope to turn into my exercise | meditation | reading room. waiting to figure out the lighting in that room so that I can see the screen and start doing yoga daily in my own space.

12. our lumpy bed needs to be replaced. waiting to do a deep dive into information about and the expense involved in buying a new bed: mattress & frame + pillows & linens.

13. many paperback books that we read years ago are in need of being re-homed. waiting for sunny days so we can go for walks in city/county parks with little free libraries where I plan on leaving the aforementioned books, one at a time.

• 🤎 •

SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

[Also any words of wisdom about any of my Thursday Thirteen items?]

• 🤎 •

If The Name Fits: An Absurd Conversation With An Amusing Friend

/ Ally Bean / 263 Comments

~ • ~

“Oh, you got to have friends, the feeling’s oh so strong….” 🎶

A friend who I shall call Wendy was telling me about something someone had said to her that had irked her. This wasn’t a case of trash talking but she felt she’d been dissed.

The someone had told Wendy that because she was the matriarch of her family, Wendy should keep her adult children in line– and that she hadn’t been doing that.

The comment was meant to be a criticism of Wendy’s mothering skills and how her adult children lived their lives.

The person saying it to Wendy was a someone who Wendy described as a snob, a social climber, a fraud. She didn’t usually pay attention to this someone’s opinions, but in this instance Wendy was peeved.

This someone had got her goat.

I figured that Wendy had taken offense at the idea she was failing as a mother because she allowed her adult children to be who they are, but I was wrong.

That was not the case.

Nope, Wendy had no problem with a criticism leveled at her parenting skills, she didn’t care about that. What bothered Wendy was that she’d been called a Matriarch, a name she found insulting because to her it meant she was old. It was in her mind an example of agism.

[Even though Wendy is the matriarch of her family, but let’s not get stuck on reality here.]

Looking for a way to put this perceived slight into perspective, I suggested that being called a Matriarch is better than being called a Crone, an ugly old woman. That’s a word I find derogatory and Wendy agreed.

She wasn’t a Crone.

Continuing on with the idea that there are worse names to be called than Matriarch, I suggested that at least this someone hadn’t called Wendy a Sea Hag, an old witch who lives near the sea. To me that seemed more demeaning than being thought of as the head of a family with the power to influence family members.

But you know what?

Wendy liked the idea of being called a Sea Hag. She said she enjoyed walking on the beach by the ocean so the thought of being a Sea Hag made her happy. She could easily accept that name because it was more in tune with who she is.

And with that admission I said the only thing I could think to say. I said three important words that keep friendships alive, I said: I believe you.

Because I do.

Questions Of The Day

Putting aside any concerns you might have about gendered language, would you take offense if someone called you the Matriarch or Patriarch of your family? Why or why not?

Thinking of all the names, positive or negative or neutral,  you’ve been called in your life, how much do you care about the way in which someone else refers to you?

Do you feel, like I do, that friends who are able to not take themselves too seriously are put on this earth to keep you laughing with them… at yourself… at life in general?

~ ~ 🤎 ~ ~