A Crisis Is A Terrible Thing To Waste

Earlier in the year I suffered from an inflammation of the cartilage between the sternum and the ribs called costochondritis. I originally thought I was having a heart attack or a lung was collapsing. The cartilage was so swollen that every time my heart beat, my chest hurt. It was awful. They didn’t catch it right away, allowing me to do activities that worsened it.

It had come out of nowhere. I hadn’t done any one thing in particular that caused it. I wasn’t able to do anything physical for months. I stayed at home a lot, an started to experience outrageous anxiety and depression that was uncharacteristic of me.

I had ideas of why this had come on and what I should do about it, but decided to start seeing a therapist, to make sure I wasn’t mad. Thankfully she assured me that I am not!

What I came to realize is that my life had been extremely out of balance. I didn’t notice the subtle cues, so my body revolted. Not paying attention to that lead my mind to act up, leading me to finally pay attention and listen to what my body and mind were trying to tell me.

When I was on the edge between falling apart and seeking help, my mother came to visit. A handful of times she told me, “You know Samantha, A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste.” I rolled my eyes the first few times, but slowly I started to see the wisdom in her words. My body had been trying to tell me something and I wasn’t listening. There were lessons to be learned.

As I started to listen I heard these pleas:

Slow Down

Take Care of Yourself (In All Areas, as You Are a Multifaceted Being)

Stop Making Unrealistic Expectations of Yourself

Quit Trying to Be Everything to Everyone

Be Gentle and Kind to Yourself (You are Healing)

Doing These Things Will Take Time, Have Patience

Over the last few months, I’ve continued to listen and take action. The next few posts will be a series on Finding Balance, covering the things I’ve done and continue to do. Please check it out for helpful ideas you can apply to your daily life.

Sam

Trip to Resource

I went over to Resource (previously known at Resource 2000) to donate some old light fixtures. After dropping the fixtures off to a helpful guy working there, I wandered around and found lots of neat stuff…

The Adventures of Sasha and Lita at The Valmont Dog Park

We have many people coming to look at our house since putting it on the market. Every time we have a showing we have to get the dogs out of the house. Some times we go to the Great Bark Dog Park in Lafayette, let them loose in Paul and Jenn’s backyard, or just have them ride in the car with us while we run errands. Jim went into the Denver office this day so the girls and I were on our own. After being so patient while I ran errands we finally went to one of the dog parks in Boulder.

Here they are thrilled to be in the car. They love to ride while I drive and stick their heads out the windows.

Much time is spent chasing each other around, sitting in the sun, and sniffing at the dog park.
I love Lita’s speckled tongue!

It was a hot day so they were eager to drink lots of water from both the spout and bucket.
Other friends love drinking from the spout too! Check out Sasha’s slurping tongue!

I find weeds to be lovely, especially those that have flowers.
I thought it was a riot that there was a fire hydrant in the middle of the dog park.

Lita searches tirelessly for the sweetest green grass to eat. Sometimes I think she’s the missing Billy Goat Gruff. Notice how tired they are from playing? As soon as we get home Lita lays on the cool tiles in our front entry while Sasha curls up under the computer desk. What loveys!

Some Summer Food

Wolf family favorite: Summer Pasta Salad

Now, maybe it’s the fact that I don’t like mayonnaise, but most summer pasta salads made with it give me the heebie-jeebies. Not only is a pasta salad like that not good for you, I’m afraid that it could make you sick if it sits out in the sun.

Anyway, other than eating a massive amount of ice cream growing up I ate very well as my my mom cooked very healthy meals. Because there were 7 in my family and we lived in Saudi Arabia, we needed dishes that were healthy, made a large amount, and would be yummy to eat in over 100 degree heat. This pasta salad meets all the criteria.

It basically has pasta, lots of raw veggies (of your choosing), and 2 packets of Good Seasons salad dressing (made with balsamic vinaigrette and less olive oil). I tend to add lots of fresh ground pepper. Lately I’ve been using brown rice pasta and adding grilled chicken, but do what works for you. Oh, and the longer it sits the better it tastes!

Jim made an incredible meal of his famous steak with corn on the cob and broccoli. My man loves his butter!

Here’s a new dish I made. It is a chicken peanut bake with brown rice and sesame Russian kale, sugar peas, and carrots.

Making desserts is probably one of my most favorite things to do. (A few days before this I made sauteed banana nutella turnovers. They were delicious!) I had a single pie crust in the freezer and blackberries were 10 for $10 at the store so I made a blackberry apple pie with peach mint jam and an oat crumble topping.

Since there are only two of us in our house (and we don’t NEED to eat an entire pie on our own) we took it over to Paul and Jenn’s house right after it came out of the oven. Jenn was asleep and Paul was still driving home from a shoot, but Greg was there. The three of us feasted on the pie with vanilla bean ice cream, making sure to leave Paul and Jenn a slice each in their fridge. What fun is good food if you can’t share it?

Morning with Monica and Manzanita

Monica and I used to both work at Alaya, although never together in the same class. When I left Alaya last year, she took my position in my class, teaching with my friend Rachel (who did the flowers for my wedding).

She has always inspired me to be creative as she is an incredible painter. Her husband Javier is a musician and between the two of their artistic talents, their Ecuadorian and Argentinian heritages, and their love for each other (they always express love to each other in Spanish), they live a colorful and cheerful life. Jim and I love to spend time with them as our interests overlap and it’s always good fun.

Not only do Monica and I share a love of art, but also a love of food. We tend to meet on a regular basis at The Med, Radda, or other tasty restaurants. It had been over a month since we had seen each other and after the new addition (of a dog) to her family, we had to make it happen. She didn’t have to go into work until a bit before noon, so we spent some time together at her home before hand. I got to meet Ms. Manzy who is cute as can be and it attached to Monica, following her wherever she goes and I got to see the new pieces Monica is working on. Not only did she recently have her 3rd opening and was commissioned to do a piece by an Alaya parent/art lover, she is also working with two different staging companies who are using her work to decorate homes. Although a new website for her work is being created as I type you can find her work here.

We feasted on the most delicious chilled soup that Monica made from zucchini, different dark greens, garlic, and basil. It is can be a raw/vegan soup, but we grated some parmesan over the top and had rye toast with some olive oil butter with it. Followed by cherries, it was the most refreshing yet filling meal.

Before leaving we took Manzy on a walk around the neighborhood, hearing children squealing at the pool and admiring a garden that Monica loves and happens to belong to a friend of mine, Stevie.

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