Celebrate Cats

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World Cat Day – August 8

It’s World Cat Day, also known as International Cat Day, and we’re celebrating our beloved felines worldwide.

Cats In Our Lives

In this article World Cat Day: When, how and why cats enslaved humanity, we learn how African wildcats came to us through the Fertile Crescent.

“The first domestic cats appeared 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent during the debut of the Neolithic Era. As agricultural societies flourished, so did the rodents that feasted in grain stores.

Where prey gather, predators will flock. And in the case of the rodents, the African wildcat came to terrorise them. The wildcats were fast and fierce, devouring the rats with ease.

Today, most pet cats claim descent from the Egyptian or the Near Eastern lineage of the African wildcat.”

Bast, Egyptian God

In ancient Egyptian times, a cat god called Bast (also known as Bastet) was celebrated.

“Bastet is the Egyptian goddess of the home, domesticity, women’s secrets, cats, fertility, and childbirth.
She protected the home from evil spirits and disease, especially diseases associated with women and children.
She was the daughter of the sun god Ra and is associated with the concept of the Eye of Ra (the all-seeing eye).”

Homes Filled With Feline Love

Of course, if you live with cats, you know that every day is World Cat Day. They fill our homes and our hearts with love.

The late Terry Pratchett once said, “In ancient times, cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.”

Let’s hope they never forget their deity roots. Here’s to our mystical, magical cats!

Baking Bread

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Homemade Bread

“Breadbaking is one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony.
It leaves you filled with one of the world’s sweetest smells... there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.”
— M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

The smell of homemade bread wafting in your home provides a sense of warmth and comfort and the promise of good food. The odor of baking bread can elicit feelings of well-being.

What makes bread smell so good? The little yeast critters are an important factor. They produce chemicals during baking that break down into delicious-smelling aromatics. The key aroma compounds create between eight and 12 notes which create the familiar smell of bread.

Bake Your Own Bread

Making your own bread at home is pretty straight forward with a bread pot by Emile Henry. Directions to make this tasty bread are included with your purchase. The wonderful lidded pot turns bread-baking into a straight-forward, no frills process. Something all of us can do.

Proof And Rise

“Bread deals with living things, with giving life, with growth, with the seed, the grain that nurtures.
It’s not coincidence that we say bread is the staff of life.”
— Lionel Poline

Mix together the ingredients: flour, salt, yeast and water. That’s it. Simple.

Allow the dough to proof and rise.

Those ingredients take on a life of their own over the next 12 to 18 hours. The instructions say 18 hours is ideal, gives the dough time to develop its personality, don’t you know.

Such a delightful idea to have a little food-being in a creation process sitting on the counter whilst you run about doing other things.

Once the rise is done, the dough needs a couple of folds, another rest of about 2 hours, and then the dough is dropped into the pre-heated bread pot. Only baking remains. It’s a no-knead bread.

Light With Your Food

For students of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®), you can bring extra light to your bread-making skills. Place your hands on the outside of your bowl when it’s full of ingredients, or while the dough is rising.

As the dough rises, you can share a cosmic symbol with your future bread when you happen to walk by. Just saying hello! Of course, when you handle bread dough, folding it, kneading it, you are bringing radiant energy to your food with your Radiant Touch®.

When it’s time to eat, you can place a hand in your heart to remind yourself of gratitude for our food and blessings.

Freezing Bread

Bear in mind, this bread has no stabilizers or preservatives, so it doesn’t do well sitting out on a counter past two days. If you have a small family and you can’t eat it all in a couple of days, you can freeze your bread. It’s ideal to freeze it while newly fresh.

Once it is completely cooled, slice it up and place in a plastic bag that you can seal tightly, then pop into your freezer. If you slice it before freezing, then you can take out slices as you need them. The bread thaws out in a flash and it’s great for toast.

Enjoy Your Bread

“Here is bread, which strengthens man’s heart, and therefore is called the staff of Life. ”
— Matthew Henry

Time to enjoy your bread. Make sure you have a sharp, serrated bread-slicing knife. You don’t want a dull knife squishing down your lovely loaf.

You can top your bread with a slice of Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter, made with grass-fed cow’s milk. A pure bread-and-butter treat.

Maybe you’ll want to use your bread to sop up some broth or stew. Or, perhaps, you wish to savor the unsullied freshness of your homemade bread and eat it plain, relishing in its chewy crust.

Bon Appétit.

Radiant Nursing is not affiliated with Emile Henry or Kerrygold.
Bread photos taken by Radiant Nursing w/smartphone.

Holy Saturday

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We Wait In Stillness

We hold in the stillness of our breath and we wait.

It’s the Sabbath, Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Easter.

Mary, Mother of Jesus

The day of the crucifixion of Jesus took place on a Friday. The Sabbath would begin at sundown. On this weekly day of worship in the Jewish faith, they were forbidden to work from sundown of Friday, the beginning of Sabbath, until nightfall on Saturday, the end of Sabbath. Therefore, they wanted to procure the body of Jesus and place it in a tomb before the Sabbath started.

One of the symbols of Holy Saturday is the Pietà, a representation of the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of her son.

When they took Jesus down from the cross, Mary, the mother of Jesus, held his broken body with love pouring forth from her heart. In spite of her decimating sorrow, Mary did not turn away. She tenderly held the precious son she had birthed into this physical world.

Could Mary know what was to come? She could only hold steady in her faith and love, and wait.

Frankincense And Myrrh

“Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews.
With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus.
Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen.
This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.”

They prepared his body for the tomb. The body was likely anointed with embalming oils – myrrh, to protect from decay and frankincense for fragrance. The same precious oils brought to the Jesus child by the Three Wise Men, foreshadowing this event.

“The aromatic perfumes and resins used in burials had a dual purpose. Perhaps the more obvious reason to use perfumes and aromatic resins is to mask the inevitable smell of decay.
The other purpose is related to the chemical properties of the oils, which slow the process of decay and protect the body from insect scavenging.”

Disciples Wait In Sorrow

As for the disciples of Jesus, they were in hiding. They were stunned, their teacher was dead. How could this be? Wasn’t he going to free them from Roman rule? What about all his teachings and healings? What would become of that?

How could they know they were waiting for a Resurrection?

Swallowed by sorrow and despair at the loss of their teacher, their beloved rabonni, especially under such harsh circumstances, they wept. Bitter tears washed through their souls.

Fear and anxiety also swept over them. Would the authorities arrest and kill them, too?

But. for this moment, Holy Saturday, there was nothing to be done outwardly. It was the Sabbath, a day of rest, work was not allowed.

They waited.

We Wait With Hearts Aflame

Whether we are religious or not, whether we’re Christian or not, we can participate in the symbolism of Holy Saturday. We build upon our awareness of process.

Jesus didn’t jump down from the cross, already resurrected, despite being mocked to do so as he was dying. It was a process that took physical time. Who knows how much inner time was required?

We live in a process in our every day lives. We walk through cycles of birth and death. Loved ones are with us, and then leave us. Seasons come and go, cycles begin and end. Within them all is a process of Holy Saturday, of holding and waiting.

We hold, but we’re not passively holding. Our hearts flutter in anticipation. We have the knowledge that a Resurrection is coming.

We wait for the flame to be lit.

We wait for the sun to rise.

We wait for the moment that we will walk free into the light.

We wait in Holy Saturday.

Happy New Year 2019

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Hello To New Year 2019

Last year was a wild ride and it appears that the bumps in the road will continue.

As a new year rolls into view and we practice writing 2019, remember to listen to the quiet voice in the heart – even while everything and everyone around us runs at a frantic pace.

Take Time For You

Be sure to take time for the little things this new year. Take a break from social media, set down the smart phone and enjoy a walk among the trees.

Bake some bread or cookies. Make a thick stew. Read a book, one that you actually hold in your hands.

Take time to exercise and stretch, to listen to music, to nurture your joy.

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

In this rough-and-tumble world, even if it seems like it’s crumbling around you, look past the worldly troubles and focus on the light in your heart.

For students of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®), take time for a meditation with TRT® hands-on in Front Position #1, in the heart. Use of TRT® expands the radiant energy of your heart center. It supports a deepening of heart-filled wisdom. Listen to your heart as you decide which way to go.

Happy New Year!

“Let not your heart be troubled…” from The Bible, New Testament, John 14:1

The Stillness of Christmas

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Christmas Eve Is Here

How did Christmas get here so fast? It seems like only yesterday we were cleaning up after a Thanksgiving feast. Another week or two to get ready for Christmas would definitely be welcomed.

But ready or not, here it is, and now it’s an opportunity to practice being in the moment. Forget what the mind says about time, if we have enough or what the future holds. Here we are, in this very moment.

It’s time to turn our focus to the symbolism of the birth of a holy light. A light of the world that guides us to a greater light within us.

The Stillness of Christmas

Christmas mass is attended and many celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. We also welcome the arrival of Santa Claus and presents are placed under the Christmas tree. Others nurture in their hearts the winter solstice and the growing light. Shops close early, people tuck into their homes.

Christmas is a time of stillness over much of the planet. A brief, still moment settles around us. It’s a cherished moment in contrast to the chaotic cacophony and frenetic activity of this world. Let that shared stillness enter your heart and wrap around your shoulders like a warm blanket.

May your Christmas be bright.