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Seasoned Living
A Quarterly Column
July-Sept 2005
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by Bret S. Beall |
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Seasoned. Adj. 1: flavorful, zesty,
interesting; 2: cured, tempered; 3: improved or enhanced
via experience; 4: colloq: of or pertaining to the
seasons.
Living. Noun. Maintaining life in a particular
manner or style; vitality.
A Dash of This, A Dab of That: A Recipe for
Balanced Living
Given the theme of “living one’s
life in balance,” I immediately thought of food and
cooking (to be honest, almost everything makes me think
of food and cooking, but that’s beside the point).
Mature, sophisticated cooking is about balancing the
ingredients in a recipe, from procurement to
presentation. Similarly, mature, sophisticated living
is about balancing the ingredients in our daily lives
from morning to night. Both can be easier said than
done, so let me share some easy-to-follow tips that I
use daily for my own balancing act.
Patience
My recipes always call for fresh
produce whenever available; my biggest annoyance is
overly processed foods, and the recipes that require
their use. However, fresh produce is seasonal, unless
it’s been transported from another hemisphere at great
environmental expense (fossil fuels used by the trucks,
trains and other vehicles). In order to transport
produce such distances, they must be picked before their
peak of ripeness, and therefore, before their peak of
flavor. This is why we have so much insipid food in our
grocery stores (sadly, too many people don’t even
realize their food is insipid!). This is also why I
like to cook with and eat seasonally and locally (and
sustainably and organically) produced ingredients as
much as possible, to get the maximum flavor with the
lowest impact on the planet. I was asked to do a
cooking demo in July; the theme would be “Summer
Salads.” Once I started thinking about this, I realized
that tomatoes are usually not in-season until the very
end of July, so I asked my host if we could schedule for
August. Now the attendees will learn how to make a
gorgeous, delicious heirloom tomato salad!
Patiently living in balance with
the seasons and your environment will bring you the
greatest rewards. There is nothing as wonderful as
tasting any fruit or vegetable freshly harvested at the
peak of ripeness. I remember my first locally grown
baby arugula of this season … when I put a few leaves in
my mouth right out of the bag, they were the best things
I had ever tasted. I hope to have the same reaction
when I pop those first local plump tomatoes into my
mouth, or a local organic blueberry, or any other taste
treat. Patience allows us to select what is best for us
when it is available, and it allows us to truly
appreciate what we have.
Patience is a requisite element for
balanced, Seasoned Living®, because embracing patience
allows us to live our tastiest, most flavorful life.
Learning that we cannot always have something NOW is a
major requirement for personal growth on all levels.
Instant gratification isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!
Because I am always insisting, “everything happens for a
reason,” I know that if something doesn’t manifest now,
it must be because I don’t need it now, or because
something even better is around the corner, or for some
other reason that I am currently unable to discern. My
20/20 hindsight has confirmed this phenomenon for me, so
I no longer have any problem with patience, as it
repeatedly “pays off.” It will “pay off” for you, too!
Moderation
Balance in a recipe comes from
adding a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
No single ingredient should dominate. If there is too
much salt, the recipe is ruined. If there is too much
vinegar, the recipe sours. If you have too little
pepper, the recipe is bland or, even worse, monotonous
and boring. But, when the ingredients are assembled in
a balanced combination, the result can be glorious.
One of my seasonal joys is visiting
local farmers markets to get the very freshest
ingredients. The mere act of visiting a farmers market
can be seen as a balancing act in many cases, because it
is often less convenient to visit a farmers market than
it is to visit the neighborhood grocery store. That’s
true for me; I can walk to several grocery stores, but I
need to drive or take the bus to the organic farmers
market. I consider this act a treat, an opportunity to
slow down and just smell the rapini. I get a real
thrill as I wander among the produce stalls, talking
with my friends among the farmers and fellow shoppers,
sampling various goods, and making my diverse
selections. I’ll confess one problem I have, though:
Sometimes my eyes are bigger than my stomach. No, I
don’t eat too much, but I do occasionally end up buying
more delicious produce and other goods than I have time
to prepare and eat. Part of this is the notion of
“stocking up” in order to balance the time it takes to
go to the organic farmers market against the other tasks
I have to do; though this makes sense on one level, it
actually has faulty logic because the longer food has
been removed from it source of nutrition (ground or
parent plant), the more nutrition it loses. This
approach is further problematic because sometimes I just
don’t use the food before it goes bad, rotting and
decaying in my refrigerator or pantry, and I feel SO bad
about that. I hate to throw anything away, because it’s
just not part of my earth-friendly philosophies. I try
to use more moderation when I buy ingredients.
So it is with life. Too much of
anything will create problems, and cause certain our
lives to fester and deteriorate. Too much work, and we
don’t have time for other activities. Too much play,
and we waste our potential. Too much smoking or
drinking or worrying, and we will hurt our health.
But, if there is too little of something, we feel
deprived. If you are feeling deprived, ask yourself if
it is because of some “real” absence, or if it is
because of some unrealistic expectations on your part
(example: a client felt deprived because she didn’t
have a plasma TV; I suggested she “get over it.”). When
we feel deprived, we rob ourselves of much of the joy of
life because we are focusing on what we don’t have
rather than what we do have. Some people think they
have to work and work in order to buy “things.” One of
my favorite (somewhat grim) quotes, and I don’t know who
first said it, is “No one ever said on his or her
deathbed that s/he wished s/he had spent more time at
work.” Remember, moderation in everything (and as
someone always adds, “including moderation!”).
Adaptability
In cooking, adapting a recipe
sometimes involves substitutions (it can also involve
cooking time, temperature, proportions, etc). Learning
how to substitute one ingredient for another, given
seasonal, financial or other constraints, is one of the
hallmarks of good cooking. Every month I provide the
readers of my newsletter and recipe columns with
individual recipes that have thousands of variations, so
that they can adapt the recipes to their own needs and
desires.
Similarly, mankind’s many Paths
have thousands, no, millions, no, BILLIONS of
variations. Everyone’s Path is unique, and those that
are most successful are those that are the most
flexible, most adaptable, most able to “go with the
Flow.” My New Year’s resolution for 2005 was to “go
with the Flow” better than I had done previously (which
was pretty darned good). Given how difficult the first
half of 2005 was for me, I have to express constant
gratitude for having resolved to not fight what cannot
be fought! By stopping my resistance, I became calmer,
quieter, and more “open” to creative inspirations. This
how being adaptable and accepting of difficulty has
helped me to become more balanced in my own life. Years
ago, I was considered rigid and “stuck” in my ways. By
becoming more flexible and adaptable, life became easier
and more in balance. I bet it could help YOUR balance.
Consistency
One food e-newsletter to which I
subscribed featured a series of recipes highlighted by
the addition of vinegars and citrus juices (lime and
lemon) to add a refreshing and invigorating zing to the
dishes. I thought, “Good for them! Adding acids is one
of the best things one can do for one’s diet.” The
following month the newsletter featured a series of
recipes that eliminated acids because they purportedly
caused fatigue and depression among other unhealthy
conditions, and urged the adoption of an “alkaline” diet
for greatest health. This is a prime example of
inconsistency (which is usually a sign that people don’t
really understand what they are doing). Not only is the
advice to avoid acidic foods like vinegars and citrus
juices just plain wrong from a nutritional and metabolic
perspective (they help control weight!), but the key to
good health is to eat a bit of everything, of varying
pH, of varying flavor, of varying composition, to ensure
maximum intake of diverse nutrients. Having identified
this inconsistency, I was able to further balance my
life by realizing that this particular newsletter
contained misinformation, so I went through and deleted
all of those newsletters I had saved to read “someday,”
and then cancelled my subscription. By purging
inconsistency, I’m more balanced, my life is simpler,
and I’m a happier camper.
Honesty
There’s another entire level to
consider with the concept of consistency. It reflects
yet another quality and that is “honesty.” I’m using
“honesty” in the context of living and speaking in
alignment with one’s personal values. One example I’m
thinking of is someone who purports to support local,
sustainable, seasonal ingredients in her weekly recipe
columns, but the list of ingredients is often anything
but local, sustainable or seasonal. I don’t mean to
imply “dishonesty,” but this disconnect demonstrates
that though she talks the talk, she doesn’t walk the
walk. She has “co-opted” these “local, sustainable,
seasonal” buzzwords when they aren’t really part of her
personal values, again suggesting that she really
doesn’t understand what she is talking about. That’s
fine (well, it really isn’t, but never mind), but she is
being dishonest with herself. Like so many of us, she
has jumped on a bandwagon without really considering how
that Path works with her own Path.
Too many people are willing to
sacrifice their “true selves” for the sake of corporate
advancement, increased popularity, romance, or some
other reason. The moment we step away from our true
Path, we can feel it in our bodies. We “tighten” up.
We feel weary. There is often a nagging voice in our
minds saying, “Is this really what you want to do?”
Paying attention to these signs is a sure way to get
back into balance.
Much of this straying from our
honest selves is about “ego.” It’s about trying to
impress others. Like my example above, it’s easy to
talk the talk, but it isn’t as easy to walk the walk.
Practice makes perfect (or at least moderately good), so
practice walking your talk. Practice being honest to
yourself, and you will easily become honest with others.
Intention
Seasoned Living® is about mindful,
intentional living. Pay attention to the world around
you, and think of the ramifications of your actions,
preferably BEFORE you take them. For example, it’s now
summer, so that imposes limitations on the techniques I
use to prepare the summer bounty. I often explain to
people that I don’t turn on the oven when the
temperature rises above 75 degrees. Then I hear, “Oh,
you don’t have air conditioning?” In truth, I don’t
have AC in my kitchen, but that’s beside the point. I
then explain that it makes no sense to turn on the oven,
and then use the AC to cool off. It’s simply wasteful.
A colleague recently said, “You sure do have a lot of
rules.” They really aren’t rules. They are simple
guidelines for living my life in balance and harmony
with the world around me. By not using the oven when
the temperature is hot, I 1) keep my home cooler, 2) I
save money by not using gas to power the oven, 3) I save
additional money by not having to run an air
conditioner, 4) I save my health by not exposing myself
to the dehydrating effects of air conditioning or the
stultifying effects of a hot oven, 5) I reduce the
impact on the earth by not using natural resources when
I don’t need to, and 6) I’m often forced to be creative
to come up with new recipes, which makes me feel good
and helps my business. So, by being aware of the
variables surrounding oven use, and intentionally
adhering to guidelines, I have maintained a balanced,
consistent, mindful and comfortable lifestyle.
The Finished Dish
Is a dish ever really finished? I
wish I could say, “Yes,” but being the creative cook
that I am, I’m always tweaking and adjusting and
adapting and changing and otherwise trying new
variations and versions. Some are successful while
others are less so, but the process IS fun.
That’s also my take on life and
living. If our focus is the future, then essentially we
are wishing away our lives. If our focus is the past,
then we never really enjoy life when it is happening.
If we can accept that life is a process that involves
clear successes and less-clear successes, we can just
relax a bit. [Some call these “less-clear successes”
“failures,” but since we can learn from them, they are
SO important to a balanced life … can you imagine how
boring it would be to be “clearly successful” all of the
time? Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about THAT!
I’ve come to embrace my less-clear successes (aka
“failures”) when they routinely occur.]
I’m constantly experimenting,
trying new things, testing myself, checking to make sure
I’m in balance. Sometimes I hit a new thing that
enhances balance. Occasionally I throw myself out of
balance. But, because I’m monitoring myself (just like
constantly tasting a recipe as you are preparing it), I
see when I’m out of balance, and I can return to the
concepts I’ve outlined above to get myself back into
balance. I check my patience, my moderation, my
adaptability, my consistency and my honesty, make sure
they are all present in the “right” proportions, add a
dash of one and a dab of another, and get back on my
Path.
Variety is the spice of life. Life
is a buffet … a smorgasbord … a tapas bar. Sample a bit
of everything. Maintaining diversity in all aspects of
your life will keep you happy and healthy. But
remember, that we are all works in progress. Sometimes
we, like a recipe, will get out of balance. The key is
knowing HOW to return a recipe or our lives, back to
balance. Enjoy your Path to Seasoned Living®.
© Copyright 2005 Bret S. Beall. All Rights
Reserved.
Read Past "Seasoned
Living" Columns:
April-June 2005 - "Trash and Treasure"
Jan-Mar
2005 - "Life Reflection: Looking Into Mirrors"
Bret S. Beall, MS, PhD (Cand). As the CEO of GOD-DESS,
I help people live fantastic lives with minimal time,
effort or money. I have used my rigorous scientific
training to synthesize psychology, sensory input, and
logic, with global cuisine, décor, lifestyle concepts,
indoor gardening and travel for each individual in an
easy-to-understand, easy-to-create and easy-to-maintain
style. For more information, please visit my website, www.god-dess.com,
or call me at 773.508.9208, or email me at bret@god-dess.com.
Let’s start at the beginning,
though. I was born in California’s San Francisco Bay
area and lived there until I was seven. During this
time, my family often took vacations to the seashore and
to the redwood forests. There, I first felt the great
interconnectedness of all life. At seven, I moved with
my family to St. Louis, Missouri, where I continued my
environmental interests (including growing houseplants).
When I was twelve, we moved to the Ozarks of southern
Missouri, where I lived on a farm and witnessed
intimately the cycle of birth, life and death. We raised
cattle, ducks, geese and rabbits, and I worked on our
neighbor’s pig farm; we also grew a variety of produce
and I first learned about preparing and preserving food.
It was also at this time that I truly began acting on my
interests in art, design and esthetics.
I did my undergraduate work in
geology at the University of Missouri - Columbia,
graduating with general honors and honors in geology; my
coursework included a typical array of liberal arts
courses (art, philosophy, history) along with the
sciences (geology, physics, chemistry, biology,
anthropology). By living in an off-campus efficiency, I
learned the basics of simple cooking and living. After
graduation, I went on to Masters and PhD work in
evolutionary paleontology at The University of Michigan
in Ann Arbor; my studies included geology, paleontology,
biology, ecology and evolution, all presented within the
framework of proper scientific methodology.
Ann Arbor has a terrific
Farmer’s Market, which inspired me and helped me to
act on my interest in ethnic cuisines and entertaining;
this had to be done on a budget (given my graduate
student salary) and efficiently (given my graduate
student time requirements). I satisfied my artistic
inclinations by doing extensive scientific illustration
to accompany my original research. Teaching courses and
speaking publicly at student seminars, at national and
international meetings, and at various clubs and
organizational meetings provided a level of excitement I
had not experienced previously as I shared the
information and data that I had collected. “Sharing”
was the key, I realized, and this is when the seeds of
GOD-DESS were planted.
I left Ann Arbor for
Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History to accept a
position as Curatorial Coordinator of Mazon Creek
Paleontology. My long hours working on both museum
responsibilities and my own research required living
both time-efficiently and cost-effectively. In a very
short period of time, I realized I did not want to spend
the rest of my life within the academic world. I had
already experienced a high level of international
success, praise and recognition, for which I am grateful
(including making it into the Guinness Book of World
Records, and having Johnny Carson make a joke about
my research on The Tonight Show). I
eventually left the rarefied world of paleontology. This
is when the seeds of GOD-DESS began to sprout and grow.
I spent the next decade in the
field of not-for-profit healthcare association
management, honing my skills in efficiency maximization,
streamlining, prioritization, customer service,
budgeting, organization, communication and
simplification, and applying the rigors of my scientific
training to the needs of my clients. My clients
experienced extraordinary growth and profitability.
Although my salary was better
than it was in academia, I still practiced my
cost-efficient living, including preparing meals at home
to eat at work. The hours were often very long, so
time-effectiveness and efficiency-management continued
to be important, if not vital. I traveled extensively in
my various roles (including organizational
representative, event organizer, executive manager, and
lecturer); often, I tacked on vacation time to
cost-effectively explore the various cities and regions
that I was fortunate to visit, which further enhanced my
travel planning skills. On my own time during this
decade, GOD-DESS grew into a fledgling company, relying
on the empiricism of my own experiences and my research.
After more than a decade of
helping my clients experience almost 900% budgetary
growth, 900% membership growth, 400% meeting attendance
growth, and enhanced visibility that cannot be
quantified, I knew it was time to become my own boss and
devote myself 100% to GOD-DESS.
I believe we are always in the
right place at the right time. Because of that belief,
everything that I do, whether paleontology, or executive
healthcare management, or lifestyle counseling, I do
well, to the absolute best of my abilities. A lifetime
of experience and research has now created GOD-DESS and
everything it can do for you. I am grateful.
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