Slow-Small Media for the Weekend #21

(Above: a freshly foraged brew: plantain and kawakawa.)

Happy weekending!

You did it! You made it through another week. Take a moment to congratulate yourself.

That’s a big achievement, atm, and if you were here with me I would bring you a nice hot cup of tea and pat you appreciatively on the shoulder. Well done.

Let’s digest…

A cleansing, sweet and delicious carrot soup recipe

(Above: not actually the carrots I used for my soup but some baby carrots I grew and then served as a snack a while ago. I was proud of the ‘Frenchie’ way I’d pared them so took a photo.)

This week my dear friend Bev gave me some large carrots she’d grown and I made this sweet and delicious Creamy Carrot Ginger Cashew Soup .

It might sound very simple but the result is delicious. The flavour combination is unique and feels very nourishing and pleasing to the palate. The cashew nuts give the soup real creaminess without the heaviness of dairy cream. It’s a soup I revisit every spring.

A wonderfully community-minded chap having fun in his own yard

If only more people were so generous, so creative, so playful…imagine the cities we could have!

This is a very inspiring seven minute watch:

Poem: ‘Red Brocade’ by Naomi Shihab Nye

A gentle poem about making time for your friends.

I love the detail about ‘snipping mint’.

Red Brocade

The Arabs used to say,
When a stranger appears at your door,
feed him for three days
before asking who he is,
where he’s come from,
where he’s headed.
That way, he’ll have strength
enough to answer.
Or, by then you’ll be
such good friends
you don’t care.
 
Let’s go back to that.
Rice? Pine nuts?
Here, take the red brocade pillow.
My child will serve water
to your horse.
 
No, I was not busy when you came!
I was not preparing to be busy.
That’s the armor everyone put on
to pretend they had a purpose
in the world.
 
I refuse to be claimed.
Your plate is waiting.
We will snip fresh mint
into your tea.

Song for the week: ‘Forever is a Charm’ by Princess Chelsea

A seductive, gentle, music-box-like song by New Zealand Indie-pop darling, Princess Chelsea. So sweet!

(I add one song to the Slow-Small playlist every time I write the digest. You can listen to the full playlist over on Youtube.)

Affordable Art: ‘Sacred’ by Kathryn Furniss

(Above: Kathryn Furniss ‘Sacred’ wall tile. Available here.)

When I spot a Kotare, usually by a stream, I always get shivers and feel like I’ve seen something very special.

This week’s affordable art, is a wall tile with a print, costs $40, and is by NZ artist Kathryn Furniss.

I like the cool blues. I like that it’s a pair.

& I so appreciate it when artists make their art available to people without big budgets in this way. Thank you for your generosity, artists.

Emotional wellbeing: You don’t need closure, you need space

(Above: I liked this quote by KC Davis so much that I wrote it out and stuck it on the wall.)

I really appreciated this short opinion piece by Nikki The Death Doula

Nikki discusses the myth of closure and how messy endings can be.

She says: ‘People want a neat bow tied around messy endings: the final conversation, the goodbye ritual, the explanation that makes it all make sense. Closure is sold to us like it’s a finish line you can sprint across, complete with balloons, confetti, and a medal that says Congratulations, you’re over it now!‘

Do you have ambiguous/strange endings of relationships or situationships that still haunt you?

I know I do. Most of the time it’s okay but then in the wee hours of the morning when I occasionally have insomnia…that’s when those old, confusing, painful endings rise up and loop around my brain…so I really appreciated this gentle reframe about the fantasy of closure and some suggestions about other ways to integrate old grief.

I also heard on a podcast in recent weeks that most adults change their friends approximately every seven years (!) I don’t know if it’s true but it’s a comforting thought if you’ve lost some connections along the way.

Watch: Soothing nonsense

Last week I found at the op-shop one of my best finds EVER but I will have to show you next week because I haven’t had time to take a decent photograph of it yet.

In the meantime, as a bit of a clue, here’s half an hour of soothing nonsense: a sweet mother and daughter team faff about first foraging acorns together and then making a miniature tea set from the acorns. With gentle music and not much happening…this little clip could be the perfect thing to lull you into an afternoon nap…

I hope something there ‘amuse your bouche’, so to speak. (Forgive me, that makes no sense.)

I’m not sure what this weekend holds. Last weekend was full (all good stuff) so I’m intentionally leaving this weekend blank so it can fill itself as we go.

Until next time, may the sun shine on your face this week,

Helen x