The Buzz

This Journey of re-awaking my senses is starting to push the limits of my comfort zone. After all at 39 my tastes aren't going to change, are they?
My trepidation began this morning when I listened to my partners voice mail. You see I like to be in control, and today he gets to chose which direction the journey winds. In a voice that sounded all most gidy he tells me "to get ready for a day of sweet wine and stinky cheese." So, you see this is where my goose bumps get goose bumps.
I have a very sensitive olfactory organ. I have never been one to try and get past the smell of something. Oh yeah and about sweet wine, I am more of a Merlot or Cab kinda woman.
At this point I am starting to wonder if he even knows me at all. After all these years together did he ever notice that I have never ordered a port or willingly drank a glass of white wine? Could it be he has no clue from the overwhelming supply of air fresheners, order guard garbage bags, and deodrants in our cupboards that I am sensitive to smell?

Well, in the spirit of adventure, I did not make up an excuse to work late. Joining my partner in a culinary vacation to a small granite ensconced mediterranean isle. We are going to dine on "shepard's cheese". With a smirk, almost as if he knows something I don't, my partner begins to unpack our feast. Little did I know I was about to be amazed by the rich historical insights my partner had made. He proceeded to educate me about how shepard's cheese came about.How the monks being diligent washed developing mold spots from their young cheeses for the sake of purity and cleanliness, only to find an unusual sticky, bright orange surface layer develop. Unbeknownst to the well meaning brethren, they had cultivated a bacterial culture on their cheeses, known today as Brevibacterium Linens. The fact that they used the only sanitary liquids around, booze or boiled salted water, and the regimented way they organized their day further served to consistently select these ripening microbes – which prefer the resulting pH and salt level.

The particle cheese he has chosen for today was Tomme du Berger, this cheese is made from raw sheep and goat milk products and aged up to 4 months. The sticky rind barely contains a bulging, intensely fatty paste. For all its buttery richness, salty assertion and animal aromas, the cheese is mercurial, and remarkably fruity. (I really did taste the ripe pears.)

The pefect pairing for this cheese according to Chris Munsey or Murray's Fine cheeses in New york, ("The wine to pair up with this pungent farmhouse fromage is an equally vivacious and original partner, an Alsatian Gewürztraminer "Harth-Cuvee Caroline" 2005 from Bernard Schoffit. Schoffit's tiny 10 hectare vineyard is perched delicately on a slope so steep it had been abandoned as impossible to harvest, until he came along. This master winemaker has managed to wring an unctuous, heady perfumed gem from the unforgiving slate, a Gewürz with rich linenol, gardenia and honeysuckle aromas, a wonderful concentration of fruit and well-balanced acidity.") So that is exactly what we did.
Finding the right wine to pair with strong, stinky washed rind cheese like Tomme du Berger is difficult. Typically dry wines are overpowered by the strong salty flavor disappearing completely after the first bite. Not so with this match, which finds a dynamic combination of salty and sweet, barnyard funk tamed by the flowery aromatics of the wine. I would especially recommend this wine and cheese pairing for those who think they don't like sweet wine and stinky cheese - you will be converted! I have been!!!

Feeling full and wonderfully aroused, I looked over at my partner and thought maybe he knows me in a way I have yet to know myself.

Find out what he made me eat for dessert next time.

Lisa Sabrina Fults
Special Ts and Sports
Custom Screen

Very much enjoyed watching the movie Mandela and de Klerk, the story of  Nelson Mandela played by the wonderful Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine as F.W. de Klerk.  Of course the acting is excellent and the story is riveting and what a relief:  No profanity or nudity.  Unfortunately, because of the nature of apartheid/segregation, violence was depicted in a graphic manner--all offset by the stimulating conversations of Mandela and de Klerk in their attempts to end the violence and end segregation in South Africa.  This film inspires because it shows what one majestic man and his followers did to change the history of segregation in South Africa.  Poitier is a credit to his race and his profession and Caine certainly does a swell job in his role.  Four stars to this well-produced film set in Cape Town,  South Africa.

 

January 2^nd 2008 -  I woke up a little tired and apprehensive about the year.  It is so true that getting up around 6:00 is a major key for me and my success.  I know that my year is about taking the best care of myself ever.  Graceful day I had.  Not a lot of energy, but clean.  Real good food choices and a mid afternoon nap.  The biggest gift of being really present today was experiencing my son Kai suggest praying for his cousin, who we just found out has a bone infection in his leg.  I am real excited about tomorrow.  Another day of mystery unfolding.  

Check out the video I just uploaded to the Buzz! We all live in our minds in this - the Information Age! Find out how someone with serious challenges can learn to improve brain function from their body. For those of us with more average difficulties, know that the untapped potential in you is available using this amazing method for optimizing human potential.

Click on videos in the menu bar above and then click on the video under education by Healing Quest...

"Free of conditioned thinking, we experience our true nature.

Caught in conditioned thinking, we experience only who we think we are." - Tao Te Ching

As much as I love this quote from the ancient text of Daoist wisdom, it's missleading. We are all subject to conditioned thinking, that's how we get anything done. If we didn't condition ourselves to think like a golfer on the golf course, for example, we couldn't hit a shot. What is limiting is not conditioned thinking itself. The problem is that we believe we are free of pre-programed conditioning by schools, parents, media, pharmaceutical companies and our own unwillingness to take responsibility for what really matters to us. Habitual thought patterns of blame, denial and excuses are great examples of conditioning that doesn't serve anyone. Does your conditioning serve you? How can you tell? Look at your results. Look at the quality of your life. Is it what you want?

Question your own mind. Question your thoughts. Question whether or not your conditioned mind serves you, or makes you small. I may not know you personally, but I stand for what I know. I know you are bigger than that. I know what you are capable of. Choose conditioned thoughts that serve you.