1. Quinoa is a delicious and very nutritious filler for all types of meals. Not a grain, more like a seed (but soft when you cook it). Eat it as warm, oatmeal-like breakfast food or with beans and mexican seasonings for a burrito or even dessert. Check out these recipes. We made this the other day served over tilapia:
2. The government of North Korea is very evil. I had no idea the extent to their people's brainwashing until I saw these documentaries: Kimjongilia (watch the trailer here or the whole thing on YouTube), National Geographic: Inside North Korea (watch the whole thing on YouTube here) and A State of Mind. I saw them all originally streaming on Netflix but you can watch them in installments in the links above. Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung are their eternal leaders and gods. The people of this county can have no religion, literally no access to the outside world and from children they are taught to hate us "imperialist" Americans. Prison camps are crucial to their economy and people are put in these camps for things like placing a newspaper picture of their dear leader on the ground or for merely being the grandchild of someone who committed a "crime" because you must "purge three generations". Yes, these Hitler-like conditions still exist in the world. It is very disturbing to say the least. Satan is reigning his terror in that land and the poor people are innocent...and starving. I hope in my lifetime we can see those people unveiled from the lies that are ingrained into them. I hope they can taste freedom and desire it for themselves (and of course avoid nuclear warfare in the process).
3. I love my sisters. It is so fun to see them dating and experiencing the joys and challenges of life (which often create flashbacks to my own past). The challenges aren't fun per se, but seeing them overcome and learn from them is joyful to me. And I can't forget my brothers: handsome Dave perfecting his spiritual nature and bringing souls unto Christ in Mexico, and handsome Dan who does so well in school and pushes himself physically in football and tennis. And of course Matt, that little blondie full of energy. It's so sweet to see him love Claire and I'm excited for the relationship they'll have only being five years apart.
4. I have no discipline to go to bed. Even if I'm tired it's like I desperately try to waste time so the day won't end. Maybe it also stems from the fact I used to be afraid of walking in my sleep. Or that I used to not be able to sleep in high school because I was stressed about a cross country meet or a stupid math test. I guess I have some issues, but now I sleep just fine - it's the deciding to go to bed part that's hard.
5. It's difficult to face the truth about ourselves but if we do so, that temporary pain can lead to eternal freedom. For book club we read "Bonds That Make Us Free" land it's very thought-provoking - even life changing if you let it. To me it's a "how-to" on how to become more charitable, let go of pride, etc. Of course we can pray about it and tell ourselves we're gonna change, but we're often caught in cycles and trenches that we truthfully don't know how to get out of. First take-home point: When we feel we're the victim it's because we're allowing ourselves to be the victim. How do we react when we fail to do what we know is right? We justify and rationalize our actions. We hurry on past the lady who dropped her stuff in the store because we're in a hurry, right? She may think we're annoying, right? Or when our spouse has a lot to do and we leave the crying child to them. We take care of the baby all the time - they never help anyway. We're betraying ourselves and blaming others for our negative emotions.
Second take-home point: "To the immature, other people are not real". Remember when we were younger and our parents and teachers weren't real people? They were there to take care of our needs and our actions didn't affect them. Remember when you first began to understand that your parents had feelings? That they were real people with flaws and emotions too? It's a interesting paradigm to shift into but it's crucial in being able to love others. That cursing lady screaming at her kids at Wal-Mart shifts from an evil person (why do people like that have kids?) to a real person with inner-anguish, maybe abuse, and a lack of knowledge about love and life because she's never had it. When we can see every person as glorious spirit beings, children of our Heavenly Father, it helps us treat others with more charity and love and less judgement. It's the how-to of the principles we know are right.
Deep stuff. It's gonna take awhile to process all of it and hopefully integrate it into my own life. Whew. That's all. Next up, Halloween!
Random can be good sometimes! Interesting too ;)
ReplyDeleteSteph, I loved this. Also, sorry for not fbing or calling you on your birthday! Will remedy soon! :) There's a book, The Aquariums of Pyongyang, that depicts life in the DPRK gulags that you may be interested in. Read it in my undergrad. Yes, the documentaries are very frightening, but it is also necessary to note that the leaders in North Korea live an extremely different life and have different knowledge than the average North Korean. Much like peasants and leaders in the PRC at the height of Mao's reign.
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