On Technological Glitches

You have no idea how it happened.

One moment, everything was fine.  The next, the bottom half of your blog page on your website has taken on a mind of its own.  No longer confined to the clearly outlined crisp white area, the words of each daily meditation sprawl across your window, taking up every extra piece of space--and the few images you have soon following suit. 

You take a deep breath.  Then another.  Then attempt every little trick you know about technology to fix it (granted they are few); you play with your admin gadgets and your style options, you restart your computer, you pray to whatever tech gods hide inside your computer.  But nothing works.  You are left with no other options but to contact the web host powers-that-be so that they can fix it.  They will look into it, they say.  It will take time, they say.

So you sit at your writing desk and ponder.  And as you gaze at the mason jar full of daffodils on your desk, your mind goes back to the other little electronic glitches that have come up in the past week: an iPod that temporarily stops working, a light that shorts out when you turn it on.  All of which lead you to one realization: it is not the tech gods in your computer that need appeasing or the lights in your home that need a change.  It is you.  

Your battery has run low.  There have been too many days in a row glued to a desk, too few opportunities to let your mind rest.  The energies around you pick it up, absorb it, and then power down, short out, unravel.  So you do the only thing you can when life has taken so much effort to show you your own reflection: you turn off your computer.  You leave your desk.  You take a walk. 

After a while, your mind remembers what it is like not to be in front of a computer screen.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

Blog Temporarily Down due to Tech Glitches!

Sigh.  Yes, it's true, somehow little tech gremlins did something to my website in the middle of the night and turned the formatting upside down on the blog. Frowny face.  But fear not!  I'm going to figure out how to clean it up and be back in action by tomorrow--hopefully!  In the meantime, I will choose to see this experience not as a setback but as some divine life lesson given to me in the form of shenanigans pulled off by mischievous tech gremlins.  Thoughts on this experience to follow...

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

DIY Home Spa Day in 5 Easy Steps

Sometimes I find it hard to transition from being all work to being all play.  Even though I *want* to play and am physically removed from my work environment, I need a little time for my brain to catch up.  I've found over the years that one of the best ways to make this transition is to have a home spa day--it's simple, fun, low cost, and relaxing.  It has all the perks of a fancy day spa without the bother of needing to leave the house (yes, sometimes that is too much for me when I need to recharge my batteries!).  So I've compiled a list of five easy steps to help you make your own spa day.  Enjoy!

1.  Set the mood with music and aromatherapy.  You know how all those spas have that gorgeous mellow music play in the background to help you relax?  Well, that's what you need at home, too.  I like the Bebel Gilberto station on Spotify or a calming instrumental station.  Another thing spas do well is the aromatherapy--they have that soothing smell of gardenias or lavender wafting through them.  Scent your home with candles or essential oils that help you relax.  I personally love lemon or lavender oils, especially in the spring.

2.  Keep it clean....and by 'it' I mean your food.  One of the most important parts of a spa day is detoxing, so treat yourself to simple light meals and fresh fruit.  You want to finish your day feeling lighter and brighter. 

3.  Hydrate.  I'm a big fan of lemon water (sparkling water too!) or water with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in it.  Both drinks help your body detox and re-energize.  I also like a mellow herbal tea like mint or chamomile to help your body adjust to your more relaxed pace.

4.  Take a detox bubble bath!  Plan to be there awhile.  We seldom get to linger and just be so really take some time to do that in the bath.  Bring a book--or two--and a big glass of water or tea.  Now would also be a good time to indulge in my honey face mask or other simple beauty treats like my easy peasy baking soda face scrub, which can also double as a gentle body scrub.

5.  Ritualized the spa day.  Start it with a gentle exercise, yoga, or meditation (or all of the above!).  Really take the time to consciously focus on your personal wellness.  End the day with a long nap and simple dinner (chia seed pudding might even make a healthy evening treat).

At at the end of the day, what you are doing is creating a soothing healing zone in your home using all five of your sense.  A spa day is a good day to indulge in self-care and quiet--two things the world seldom values over busyness and noise.  Yet if we don't take time to care for ourselves, we cease to enjoy the pleasures of everyday life. 

What is your favorite home spa day ritual?

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

A Love Letter to Spring Break

Dear Spring Break,

I don't normally write these kinds of letters, but something about you makes me want to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and describe, in graphic detail, all the things that make you delectable. 

Let's start with the length you: ten whole days of freedom.  Ten whole nights of staying up late watching old movies.  240 whole consecutive hours in which I don't have to wear real clothes or even shoes for that matter.  14,400 minutes to take long naps and even longer bubble baths.  864,000 seconds to lose track of--afternoons to get lost in pulp novels, mornings to while away over a cup of coffee. 

But that's not all, Spring Break.  I've only just scratched the surface of your deliciousness.  I haven't even gotten to your luxuriousness, like a mink coat or velvet on bare skin.  Every inch of you begs to be saturated in pure, unadulterated enjoyment.  Yes, you say, to drinking wine on the porch!  Yes to locking away your teacher-self, as you do your teacher wardrobe, in your closet--no need to feel so downright responsible all the time.  Yes to indulging in your introversion! Yes to rejecting firm schedules! Yes!  Yes! You are E. M. Forster's Yes to the everlasting Why.

Spring Break, you are the biggest flirt that ever lived, egging me on with your promises of fun, your coy hints at bottomless pleasure.  Spring Break you seduce me with your no-nonsense approach to hedonism--nothing must be done that is not thoroughly, completely enjoyed. 

Life, you tell me, is a celebration.

Sincerely,

Maria

PS I like you.  Do you like me?  Please circle one: Yes    No     Maybe

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

...& 10 Things I Will *Actually* Accomplish Over Spring Break

....Yes, there is always the lofty plans, as I said in yesterday's blog.  And then the Friday before spring break comes.  You grade your last paper, send off your last email.  Suddenly all the excitement that has been building up inside of you, waiting for this moment of freedom is released, leaving you with nothing more than a gentle tiredness.  So here is my more realistic list of what I will *actually* get done!

1. Sleep in--a lot.  Like a lot. 

2. Read for fun books.  I've got a cozy mystery I need to finish and an epic fantasy novel I want to start. 

3.  Take naps.  Long, deep naps.  The kind where you lose track of time and when you wake up, you don't know what day it is.  Those kinds of naps.

4.  Stay up late watching old movies and favorite TV shows.  Yes, I love stories.  I need them always, in any form.  It also feels kind of exciting to stay up past my bedtime when I don't have to teach.

5.  Drink wine on my patio.   Because watching the birds and enjoying the sight of my healthy herbs plants is wonderful...especially when I don't have a stack of papers to grade.

6.  Take long walks to feel the sun on my skin and hear the birds singing.

7.  Take long bubble baths.  Books and wine welcome. 

8.  Do yoga.  Hot yoga.

9.  Cook--but only easy, simple meals inspired by the season (goodbye plans for ambitious cooking experiments).  Radish-avocado salads, here I come!

10.  Rest and goof around. This is the most important one.

Let's face it, spring break is all about recharging your batteries, literally shaking off the wrinkles and responsibility of your usual routine and losing track of time.  To all my teacher friends out there, I hope your spring break is as full of lollygagging as mine!

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

10 Things I Say I Will Accomplish Over Spring Break...

It's that time of year again--the time when spring is at your door and almost begs you to make lofty plans to soak up some of the extra energy and lightness you feel.  Spring break is always like a second round of New Year's Resolutions for me; I get inspired by the time change and the birds chirping and want to do spring cleaning and tackle all sorts of long-put-off projects and adventures.  So, here is my granted over-the-top-hopeful list of things I'd like to accomplish over spring break (assuming I don't just sleep my way through it).

1. Spring cleaning!  It's time to dust all those nooks and crannies again--what better time to do it than when I have a whole week off from teaching?

2.  Get caught up on those lesson plans!  Yes, all teachers at one time or another have the faint hope that this will be the break they get completely caught up on all grading, planning, and organizing.

3.  Wash the car.  Seriously, it needs it.

4.  Bake.  Fresh bread, healthy-for-you muffins, delicate tea scones.

5.  Make more body butter. Yes, it always feels great to whip up another batch of my favorite body butter, especially when I can lace it with the smell of spring.  Mmmmm...lavender-lemon body butter....

6.  Organize all those files that sit in my closet, slightly disheveled and feeling more or less abandoned.

7.  Try new recipes--cook up a storm.  Maybe even be wild and attempt some veggie sushi.

8.  Tackle that new crafting project.  Hell, if glitter is involved, what's *not* to enjoy?

9.  Practice my Spanish.  Who knows--it could very well come in handy for travel.

10.  Begin organizing my planter garden.  Pots need to be picked, seeds purchased, soil gathered so that I'm ready to plant when the time is right.

Ambitious?  Heck yes!  But sometimes these wild fantasies of what we hope to get done are half the fun of anticipating a mini-holiday.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

Rose-Tulsi Breakfast Quinoa

So I am addicted to my weekday morning quinoa for breakfast.  I cook it just like oatmeal but find the hearty little grain holds me better than your average oatmeal.  It's simple.  It's healthy.  It's homey.  It's full of good-for-you fats and proteins while being gluten free.  How can breakfast get any better?  Still, even this perfect weekday breakfast can use a little twist now and then to shake things up.  I got totally inspired byNatural Vitality Living's Overnight Earl Grey Porridge--what a wicked combination of the soothing morning oatmeal with the sophistication of Earl Grey tea.  Even better, I thought, would be tea like Rose-Tulsi, a blend of rose petals and holy basil, to infuse my breakfast quinoa with the taste of spring.  Top that off with some Greek yogurt and fresh berries and you have the perfect recipe for a good morning!

Ingredients

2 cups water

1 cup quinoa

2-3 tablespoons honey (to taste) 

2 heaping tablespoons or two bags Rose-Tulsi tea (I used Organic India Sweet Rose Tulsi Tea found in most health food stores)

Toppings of choice (I like plain Greek Yogurt and fresh berries)

I typically cook this on Sunday and store it the fridge for the workweek.   It stores well and makes for a hearty breakfast on the go. The night before, bring the water to a boil and steep the tea for at least five minutes.  Remove the tea bags (or strain the loose leaf tea) after steeping and allow to cool.  Mix the quinoa and cooled tea together in a resealable container and let soak overnight in the fridge.  In the morning, cook quinoa on medium heat for approximately 15 minutes or until grains are soft.  Stir in honey to desired sweetness. Serve with fresh fruit and yogurt for a delicious, satisfying breakfast!

Makes 4 servings

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

The Daffodils on My Nightstand

They sit, so cheerful, on your nightstand. 

You heard them the other night, when they were still closed buds in your vase, slowly crackling and giggling as they began to poke out their heads from the paper-thin coat that held them in place.  One crackle.  Two.  Then, as if the cautious opening of the flowers was no longer enough, they burst open, all sunshine and brightness, leaving their brown husk behind.

They are the first thing to greet you in the morning--that dose of sunlight before even the sun itself is up.  Big bold petals cradle their loud trumpet shaped center as if it were a fragile porcelain tea up and they, the saucer.  In the center of each flower sits the furry, pollen-coated stamen perfuming your room with the sweet scent of spring.

They chase winter away, promising warmer days and flower-strewn gardens.  Soon, they say, soon.  Soon you will be able to pack up your winter coat and shed your winter layers.  Soon you will be able to walk barefoot on the grass and picnic on fresh radishes and sprouts and berries.  Soon.  But until then, you have me--that bright cluster of flowers on your nightstand.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

On Getting Lost in the Desert

Driving down to the Westside was not your ideal Friday plan--not even on your top ten list of things to do in Albuquerque.  Sure, you love the bosque and cruising down Montgomery over the river and down to the petroglyphs.  But that ritual is a far cry from actually having to go somewhere down there and be somewhere by such and such a time.

Nevertheless, you found yourself doing just that: navigating the Westside in an attempt to get to an office meeting.  You were very proud of yourself.  You left a whole hour early, just to make sure you got there on time, just to leave that little wiggle room for the unexpected twists and turns of the part of Albuquerque that is so foreign to you it might as well be its own city.

It is lovely at first. You drive past the bosque, over the river and turn on Unser, cruising past the petroglyphs into the wide open expanse of the desert.  But the open space does nothing to cure your tunnel vision: you must get to the meeting.  As you keep driving, a slow sense of unease bubbles up inside of you.  You can't seem to find the turn off to Universe, can't find Rainbow either.  It is as if the desert has buried its street signs under the bright morning light. 

And so you keep driving down Unser, past one Walgreens after another, one housing development after another, until all the Westside blends together in a stream of buildings built over-night.  You feel like you stumbled onto the set of a modern Wild West show where everything looks like hastily slapped up storefronts with nothing behind them.  Eventually, you lose even that.  Any inkling of civilization is left behind and you find yourself on a one-lane road driving deeper into the desert, the mountains ahead of you the only witness to your useless sense of direction.  You have never seen this part of the city before and it is as if you stumbled across a lone stretch of land invisible to all in the city except for those willing to get a little lost once in a while.

It is only when you reach the end of the road--literally a dead end in the middle of nowhere--that you pause and examine your directions again.  The meeting has already started.  Yet despite your need to get back on the road and find your way to civilization, you take a moment to pause, to breathe, to enjoy the desert quiet.  It is a gift, you realize--getting lost.  A gift from Coyote, that desert trickster that sneaks up on us just when we most need to unplug from our narrow vision and get a bigger world view.

There, alone in the middle of the desert, you realize your life is more than just being a perfect worker bee and getting from one place to the other.  It is sand and stone, air and light, mountain and breath.  You take this revelation with you as you pull back on the road and find your destination. 

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

On Double Yolks

The skillet is hot--as hot as the bluegrass playing in the background, as hot as the coffee in your cup.  Today is a day for a bold breakfast.  You shake off your usual weekday oatmeal in favor of eggs over easy, chorizo, and toast, a perfect gourmet diner breakfast made all the better for coming from your kitchen.

You crack one egg and pour it into the pan, then another.  And there it is, in the second egg: a fat golden double yolk.  The orbs sit piled atop one another as if caught kissing before they could disentangle themselves.  You marvel at how so much yolk could fit into such a tiny little eggshell such as the empty one you now hold in your hand.

You watch your eggs cook, and a sly voice inside your head--the one who loves a good story, a good superstition--coyly whispers that double yolks are good luck, harbingers of double the grace, the plenty, the fortune.  These are the stories of old wives and crones and witches that you are half-tempted to believe if only because these fat yolks nestled together in front of you seem nothing short of magic themselves.

You flip your eggs and decide to let your fanciful imagination run away with you.  Double yolks are good luck.  Yes, you commit to the idea.  Already, as you plate your breakfast, your mind turns to the possible adventures these double yolks foretell.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

Signs of Spring No. 1

And once again, spring is upon us!

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

On Healing a Shoulder Injury

It is an exercise in patience.

You feel the twinge of an old injury--one made years ago from overwork and an addiction to busyness that still haunts you.  It comes and goes in time with the rise and fall of the semester. 

The overachiever in you was once tempted to strengthen that shoulder with weights and more complex yoga postures and more time on fancy workout machines.  You know now how futile that all is.  It only buries the pain deeper inside your tissues.

No.  The answer to your injury is at once more simple and more profound than that: you must listen to your body.  Your shoulder, like a wing stretched too tight around your back, is remembering how to unfurl itself, how to let one feather after another relax its grip on your ribcage and do what it was meant to do.  Let it reach skyward even as you lay your roots in the earth.

Your shoulder.  Full of infinite strength but too often asked to carry more than it should.  With each feather that unwraps itself from your body, each gentle exercise that allows you to move your shoulder back into its place, you let go of the weight that has held your shoulder down for too long.  You let go of the memories embedded in the socket, the feelings your body remembers but that your mind strives to forget. 

And at the end of your work you are left with this one answer, this one truth: your body heals only when you stop trying to forget.  When you stop.  When you listen.  When you truly let yourself mend.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

On an Afternoon Walk

You hadn't planned to take a walk.

There were things to do, tasks to accomplish.  But the afternoon called to you, beckoning you from your perch at your desk, luring you outside to bask under the tender caress of the soft spring sun like a kitten stretched out under a plot of light by the window. 

It is fresh air you needed.  You know that now that you are walking--the cool breeze with the faint hint of spring in it, the smell of dirt and dry grass and sunlight.  You take in one long breath, then another, and another, letting your chest expand with this intoxicating air. 

Gradually, you become aware of other things--the birds singing: finches, doves, sparrows pleasantly clamoring for attention all at once.  The sharp cries of a hawk, too, are a welcome presence as you stroll around the park.  You watch people walking their dogs or playing sports or circling the park just as you do.  Admire how the sun seems to melt away their cares; even the normally frazzled soccer moms look fresh, vibrant with the promise of spring in the air.

With each lap, you admire the homes--especially the tenderly cared for adobes--and the grounded, calm energy they represent.  Soon it is time to wind your way back to your home, the cares of your work left scattered on your desk, all but forgotten by you.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

On Driving Home From Work

The road is spread out before you.

Aretha Franklin is playing on the radio and the sun is shining.  You've finished grading all your papers.  They lay in neat stacks on your office desk, just as you left them.  Each file has been put carefully back in its place and your computer has been turned off.  Your mind drifts back to the evidence of your industry, but can't linger there for long.

Your thoughts move from emails and lesson plans to the possibility of a long walk or an afternoon yoga--but even there, you cannot linger.  Your mind doesn't want to focus on anything except the sound of soul in your speakers and the smooth sailing of your car as it cruises down Montgomery. 

You let go of your professional to-do list as Aretha Franklin makes way for Otis Redding.  The mountains take up all the space in your view mirror and the rest of the day stretches out before you. 

You are half tempted to keep cruising down Montgomery, just listening to music and breathing and being--far enough at least to see the river and the Bosque, and maybe, if you're lucky, the faint promise of spring in budding trees.  But your body wants to move.  It wants to dance and wiggle after a day of focused movements, so you turn home, lowering your music as you go, and slide your car into its space.

Somewhere between revving your engine in the school lot and parking your car at home, you've moved from teacher to simple human being.  You shake off the last of your day as you lock the car and carry your teacher tote inside, mind already on the roasted vegetables for dinner.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

On an Afternoon Spent Reading in Bed

It is the perfect day for it.  The sky is coated in thick gray clouds; the air is cool and moist.  The weather practically begs for you to turn inwards and indulge in an afternoon of reading in bed.  You put on the kettle.  You prepare the tea tray.  You change into comfy jammies and wrap your knitted blanket around you, ready to forget about the world for a little while.

You don't commit to one book, however, or the lush enjoyment of losing yourself in a single adventure.  Instead, you give yourself over to the luxury of many worlds spread out before you on your bed, each book a passport to another life.  You read some of one, then another, content to flit between your favorite characters as if you were hosting a dinner party and they were your honored guests. 

Eventually, when the pot of tea is empty, and each book has been turned through--some more than once--you allow yourself to drift, comforted by the soft texture of your knitted blanket, the quiet hush of the day, and the collection of books in disarray on your bed.  You close your eyes and, as sleep takes you, feel the afternoon unravel into evening.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

On the Doves Outside My Window

Every morning they greet you with their cooing and cuddling.

They perch on the thick branches of the naked tree just outside your window, warbling and fluffing their feathers and flitting around each other in an ancient mating dance.  Those two are your writing companions, punctuating each of your sentences with their full-bellied song.  This time of year, the leaves of the tree do not hide their presence--and so you see them, in all their glory, as they go about their day, flirting, singing, flying.

You need no other music but their song and the flap of their wings as they wind around each other, circle the tree and dart around other birds--their neighbors the finches and sparrows.  They remind you that spring is almost here, that the earth is already preparing for the new season, that seeds are sprouting in the ground, getting ready to push their little heads skyward. 

These doves are proof that life is more than just one keystroke after another, but a continuous dance, a never ending song, a bright burst of flight over the tree, out of range of your windowsill, and towards the mountains.  They are your evidence that life is in the quiet moment where you pause and simply listen to the doves' song and watch as they playfully chase each other from branch to branch and then take flight.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

On Revisiting an Old Story

It's like a friend you'd almost forgotten you had until you accidentally stumble across it one day in your search for something soothing to read. 

There it sits high up on your bookshelf, sandwiched between books you have read and some you will never read.  There, there is the one that you go back to again and again, despite the many unread stories taking up space on your shelf and nightstand.

Before you know it, you have the book in your hand and you are curled up on the couch, once again immersed in the world of your favorite heroine.  Each city street or hedgerow is so familiar as if you have walked those grounds a hundred times before.  You relish entering the familiar kitchen or the basement alchemical workshop as you would your own home; if you could, you would spend a quiet afternoon there, sipping tea in front of the kitchen fire, or rummaging through ancient books and jars filled with mysterious things in the workshop.

You eagerly anticipate every plot twist as if it were a long-expected guest that you wait for from your perch by the window.  There it is!  The car has turned the corner and makes its way up the drive, signaling the arrival of your guest, just as the new chapter reveals what you already knew would happen and yet keeps your heart racing all the same.  You read on, grateful to once again be in this familiar world, uncaring that soon you will reach the end of your book, and have to put it back on your shelf--no, you try not to think about the end.

For now, you content yourself with lingering in the pages of your worn book, taking comfort in the old story that tells itself again and stretches beyond the page into your waking imagination. 

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

On Red Chile Stew

It is your medicine.

It is the cure-all that warms your bones and mends your heart, more chicken noodle soup than chicken noodle soup.  It is memories of a kitchen filled with the scent of cooking pinto beans, a counter coated in flour as your roll out one fresh tortilla after another.  It is the taste of good Mexican beer and lively conversation on your tongue.  It is the feel of the desert in your bowl, a treat so little appreciated beyond the borders of your realm. 

You grind your red chile pods, already softened from a long soak in warm water, and run them through a sieve until you are left with nothing but a velvety red liquid to fill your soul as it fills your bowl.  Although you will later spoon beans into your bowl of chile, you take a moment to enjoy the simmering treat at its best: hot on the stove, a fresh tortilla dipped into the pot to scoop up the ruby liquid. 

You take one bite, then another.  The spiciness hits your tongue first, then the earthy sweetness of the chiles.  The steam from the pot washes over your faces, coating it in the soothing smell of a New Mexican home--your chile, your beans, your tortillas all cooking on the stove to create a rich perfume of the southwest. 

It is home.  It is healing.  It is the desert.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

On Grading Essays at Home

The afternoon was built for quietly wading through another round of papers. 

You are grateful to be home, soaking up the peaceful surroundings as you fill out one rubric after another in green pen.  Earlier, you had forgone your usual teacher uniform as soon as you closed the front door, exchanging it instead for the comfort of yoga pants, your favorite sweatshirt, and a sloppy bun.

Now, you sit at your writing desk, a pot of tea by your side brimming with a soothing mint concoction.  The window is cracked open and the fresh air wafts over you, stirring your pile of papers and gently caressing your skin.  You can hear the little finches in the tree outside your window trilling their robust song and the sparrows responding in kind.

This is the real art of teaching, the one students never see: the steady rhythm of responding to their words on paper as the minutes tick into hours, the methodical process of reading between each line, seeing what they wanted to say, not what they necessarily committed to paper.  Yes, this is true teaching in all its glory: yoga pants and sentence-fragment corrections, sloppy up-dos and tips on thesis development, home-blended tea and organization advice--and always, always the hope that they can read your handwriting.

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!

Lemon-Mint Sleepy Time Tea

...because sometimes we need a little variation to our sleepy time tea. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup skullcap

1/2 cup hops

1/2 cup chamomile

1/2 cup lemon balm

1/2 cup peppermint leaves

Blend all ingredients in a bowl and transfer to an airtight container.  Keep away from direct sunlight and heat.  To brew, use a heaping tablespoon per cup of hot water.  Add more tea per cup of water for a stronger brew.  Makes approximately 2 1/2 cups of tea.  Enjoy!

Health benefits of ingredients:

Chamomile: anti-inflammatory; sedative; skin softening; all around body soother.

Hops: contains calcium and magnesium among other vital nutrients; sedative; soothes PMS symptoms; diuretic; antispasmodic.

Lemon Balm: antihistamine; antibacterial; nerve tonic; digestive stimulant.

Peppermint: a cure all herb for headaches, cramps, sore throat, and stomach aches.  

Skullcap: nerve tonic; tension soother; contains calcium, potassium, and magnesium, among other vital nutrients. 

Enchantment Learning & Living is an inspirational blog celebrating life’s simple pleasures, everyday mysticism, and delectable recipes that are guaranteed to stir the kitchen witch in you. If you enjoyed what you just read and believe that true magic is in the everyday, subscribe to my newsletter below for regular doses of enchantment. Want even more inspiration? Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Here’s to a magical life!