Pumpkin Soup

14-15 oz of chopped or puréed pumpkin (or 1 14.5 oz can)
32 oz. of chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 cup white cooking wine or dry vermouth
1/4 cup apple cider or juice (optional)
1 medium onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 apple, peeled and cored, chopped
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
curry powder, to taste (approximately 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon, depending on type)
salt and pepper, to taste

Optional ingredients:
chives
cilantro
crème fraiche

1. Warm the olive oil in a soup pot; add onion, garlic and fresh pumpkin to sauté (if using canned pumpkin, don't add until step 3).

2. When vegetables are soft, deglaze the pan with the wine.

3. Add remaining ingredients (experimenting with the balance of spices), first bringing them to a light boil, then simmer for 20 minutes or so.

The flavor will differ greatly, depending on the type of pumpkin, broth, curry powder, and apple liquid used. The presence of the apple and cider helps balance the sometimes strong flavor of the pumpkin. Spiced cider can be used; experiment with the amounts of cider and curry powder, to balance the flavor.

If desired, you can purée by batches in a food processor to creamy consistency, or you can serve as is.

Serve in wide soup plates. Finish with a dollop of crème fraiche and a sprinkling of chopped cilantro or chives.

Pair with a light, dry Pinot Gris or Riesling.

Enjoy!

Drifting

Leaves drift, as they will,
in the breezes of the air,
in the breezes of the mind;
moments in time, they are,
pages turning in the book
of our times and lives,
turning softly,
margins ablaze
with the errata
of our thoughts,
body abuzz
of our doings.

Time drifts away from us,
through ever-present-now,
in wordless conversation
that rolls and tumbles,
in sleep gathering motions,
changing as the endless sea
reflects the same billions of stars
that have ever been
in the sight of Creation.

Awareness is that point
where I drift away,
yet still am, no less, here,
to see the changed
and the changeless,
the drifting leaves,
the swells and ebbs,
of self, other,
selflessness
and time.

© 2010 by Elisabeth T. Eliassen

Awareness

Deep in walk;
deep in thought.

Then wind speaks, and
hair strays into her eyes,
the ends pricking the soft, fleshly orbs.

Her attention is pulled backward,
then forward,
to Now,
but is she now focused?

[Mind does not respond to the mindless happening;
Heart does not respond to the act not originating in (com)passion;
only the body seems engaged in this wordless conversation
'twixt a neutrally aware self and environs.]

By way of response,
an arm moves upward,
fingers flex casually,
and the errant strands are flicked away,
expected by the hostess to find rest
in some more appropriate way,
or at least a way less irritating,
one that will not obscure vision, cause pain.

"Time for a haircut," she thinks, dismissively.

The wind has been slighted, however,
and the opportunity to unravel
a coded message from the Kosmos has passed.

© 2010 by Elisabeth T. Eliassen

Count Yourself IN!

We live in a Representational Democracy. Your preferences are only represented if you, the registered voter, participate by exercising your right and civic duty to vote.

Hopefully, we have all done our homework and know what it means if we vote "yes" or "no" on propositions. Hopefully, we are clear that the people we are voting into office are people who will do what they have said they would do, and that they have clearly, during their campaigns, stated their platform.

I leave you with some food for thought; a few quotes from Barry Goldwater (1909-1998), who lost to Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 presidential election. A Republican senator from Arizona, Goldwater was called "Mr. Conservative" for a reason. However, he was much more Libertarian in his politics than his party was willing to accept: he believed that abortion was a valid personal choice; he decried the grip the "religious right" placed on the GOP and its platforms and policies; he was for legalization of medical marijuana; and he was against banning gays from the military. A few years before he died, he told right wing leadership not to associate his name with anything they were doing because "You are extremists, and you've hurt the Republican Party more than the Democrats have."

Political wisdom from Barry Goldwater:

"How did it happen? How did our national government grow from a servant with sharply limited powers into a master with virtually unlimited power? In part, we were swindled. There are occasions when we have elevated men and political parties to power that promised to restore limited government and then proceeded, after their election, to expand the activities of government. But let us be honest with ourselves. Broken promises are not the major causes of our trouble. Kept promises are. All too often we have put men in office who have suggested spending a little more on this, a little more on that, who have proposed a new welfare program, who have thought of another variety of 'security.' We have taken the bait, preferring to put off to another day the recapture of freedom and the restoration of our constitutional system. We have gone the way of many a democratic society that has lost its freedom by persuading itself that if 'the people' rule, all is well."

“Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.”

“Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.”

“Where is the politician who has not promised to fight to the death for lower taxes—and  who has not proceeded to vote for the very spending projects that make tax cuts impossible?”

The point I make by highlighting the statements of a conservative politician whom I would not have voted for, had I been of voting age during the Presidential election in 1964, is that policy is bigger than the spin our parties generate about it.

Policy is most frequently about money, who gets to have, keep or spend it and who does not; no party is averse to money or clean from the taint of it.

This election has been driven by big money and corporate interests. Candidates have tried to buy their offices. Communities, mine and perhaps yours, too, have been tortured with spurious campaign mailers, robo-calls, fake surveys and push polls.

Big money is behind that. Don't wonder why. It is about parting you "soon, and often", from your hard earned wage.

This is unthinkable. But I want you to think on it, as you head to the polls to cast your vote today.

Goldwater also said, "To disagree, one doesn't need to be disagreeable."

He was right. We need to wonder at all that has been disagreeable during this campaign, and be concerned about our choices, as they have bearing not just on our rights and liberties, but also those of others.

Report Card On Democracy: The Three Ds

Here we are, on the eve of Elections. Tomorrow, we will be asked to do our civic duty, in an informed manner, by casting our votes.

But how do we, as voters, rate?

I have a list of three Ds important to Democracy. These are arbitrary, I realize; there could be others. Maybe you have your own list.

Discourse. Have politicians been engaged in honest dialogue with constituents? Have they clearly stated what their policies would be? Have we citizens engaged in true dialogue amongst ourselves? What I have read, heard, seen has been pretty rotten, even at the local level. Unseen Big Money engaged in mudslinging with expensive mailers. Candidates that harp at one another at so-called debates. Citizens, taking the lead of what they see politicians doing, talking at each other, not to one another. No one is listening. The world is painted as black or white, right or wrong, either/or, one way or the other. "If you are not for me, you are against me!" Even when that means you have to ride two horses. While we are all so busy enjoying the circus antics of those running for office (sometimes I wish there was something really entertaining to see or hear), what kind of deals are being made in government back offices?

Discretion. Have we been discrete in our dealings and discourse? In this age of the internet and the cellular phone, people seem now to be accustomed to airing their dirty laundry, and that of others, for all to see and hear. And then they want their privacy protected. When people give away their own privacy with such little disregard, they then feel entitled to take on the role of victim. When Shakespeare had Falstaff say, in Henry IV, Part 1, "The better part of valour is discretion", he follows it up with the phrase "in the which better part I have saved my life." How often do we speak without thinking? Without realizing that we are surrounded by ears that are hearing us? It has become all too commonplace for our thoughtless thoughts to become public.

Dignity. When we fail in maintaining Discourse with Discretion, we fail ourselves and others in preserving Dignity for all.

Failing Democracy is unthinkable. But I ask you to think on it, as you prepare to go to the polls tomorrow to cast your vote.

Do vote, please. I hope that you have done your homework well. I hope that you have read and listened beyond all the indiscretions and petty bickering to find the heart of the issues at stake.

My own ballot was cast weeks ago and mailed in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Choice

Lemming Leaders slouch along,

treading all their roads to nowhere,
paved, as they are,
with public monies and
sentiments misplaced
in the power to choose.

But, who
shall stand
when
I AM REAL
appears?

Lemming Leaders shall continue,
slouching along,
as they always have,
skimming the system,
and plying pretty words
by which to play
us all for suckers.

Others, seeing
the truth about our choices
and sensing another, better way,
will find the place of no road,
and from there make a start
at a different kind of journey.

© 2010 by Elisabeth T. Eliassen

Winnowing

In the dwindling days of the year,

you find me
in the fields,
ready for harvest.

Shall the culling
be bitter
or shall it
be sweet?

Harvest,
the turning of the year,
the time of turning
and returning,
for threshing
and for winnowing.

Stand amid the grain
and feel the wind,
gathering ripe stalks
with whispering
and singing.

Stand among the still tender shoots
and feel the wind,
caressing each and all
into a dance of plenty
with a song.

The winnowing fan
is aloft, riding the breeze!
The music and the dance,
the singing never ends!

The same song
garners the wheat
as burns the chaff;
in either case,
transcendence
is the fruit.

Now the song,
the sweet song,
has found me,
inside the dance,
inside the spiraling now.

Take me in the field,
and winnow on.

© 2010 by Elisabeth T. Eliassen

Blessings and prayers for our departed loved ones, this All Souls' Day.

Cloudy, with a chance of rain

With the waters,
I rise and,
under the burning sun,
dissipate as steam
until I am no more than a cloud,
flowing through the sky
as a grey mass
of moist energy,
waiting to be unleashed when,
tickling the ground,
my flourishes
shall paint rivers of brightness
upon a parched land.

Flow onward, my soul

—I drink to thee,
sweet life,
so full
of endless
possibility.

© 2010 by Elisabeth T. Eliassen