zena musings

Special 20% Off for Fans of The Tudors

Just discovered that Showtime's The Tudors BLOG BUZZ is linking to my blog, and to celebrate zena moon is offering a special 20% discount to Tudors fans! Simply enter coupon code TUDORS in your shopping cart prior to checkout. (Offer not valid with any other coupon or special promotion.)

Candles were a necessity during King Henry's reign, and I can't help but reflect had I been a candlemaker at court, he would have benefited from sex-o-rama, crabbiness-b-gone, forgiveness and this too shass pass. Lord knows he'd have burned through in memory of... candles like mad! Anne Boleyn might have liked protection, fertility and, at the end, kiss my ass. Queen Catherine of Aragon's candles might have been care of the soul, faith, prayer for strength and love. I don't know Jane Seymour and Henry's other wives well enough yet, but I'd love to hear what you think!

Happy shopping fellow Tudors lovers!

Sacred Life Sunday: Springtime

 

When I got up this morning, my little dogwood tree was in full bloom. What a beauty! I love my garden. I love taking care of it. I didn't plant it, previous owners did, and I am grateful to them every single day! It's filled with good soil, chives, sage, lavender bushes, parsley, fennel, day lilies, tulips, daffodils, yellow lilies, black irises, roses, a dogwood tree, a lilac bush, lupines (which I'm going to get rid of, I don't like them), daisies, hostas and lilies of the valley. And weeds . . .which I do my best to keep up with. All that just in this little curvy area!

What I love most is how different things bloom throughout the year. It'll look different even in another couple months. I'm also grateful they put a wire fence around it, which keeps my dogs out. Silas likes to "accidentally" push a ball through the fence, then barks at me to rescue it!

I could make all sorts of analogies between life and spring and seasons and such, but honestly I'm still not feeling all that deep or wordy. Just living a quiet season, trying to make peace with fear. In other news...

• I hired a new workerbee I absolutely adore named Max.
• My dog Elliott, God and a bassett hound named Louie teamed up to give me an amazing, funny Mother's Day present.
• Dating in my 40s (and sober!) bears zippo resemblance to dating in previous decades. Which frankly sort of baffles me at this point.
• Season 2 of The Tudors is in full swing and I am LOVING IT! The acting (especially Jonathan Rhys Meyers as King Henry VIII and Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn), the writing, the costumes . . . without question the best series ever produced. I want to visit England to see the real Tudor historical sites in person.
• I've seen heaps of powerful 5-star movies lately: Atonement, Possession, Firelight, The Namesake, The Kite Runner and Lars and the Real Girl. I also just watched a documentary on The Ramones which made me happy I saw them in the 90s (with Blondie!) before everyone died. Man, if I was a decade older, I would've loved living in New York City in the 70s!

I keep reminding myself this year is about ease and enjoyment. Serenity and emotional stability are precisely what I need. Less isolating and more fun wouldn't hurt either. :) Gonna work on that this week!

Visit more Sacred Life Sunday participants here. (I'm sorry the list still isn't current. I suck, but I will update soon!) Blessings to all.

Spiced Chicken Thighs and Barley

Several of you asked for the recipe I mentioned on Mother's Day, so here it is! I doubled the amount of spices in the original recipe from Cooking Light, but feel free to readjust to your own individual taste. Enjoy!

1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp dried mint flakes
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground pepper
6 (4 ounce) chicken thighs, skinned
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
Cooking spray
1-1/2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
3-1/2 cups low-salt chicken broth
1-1/4 cups uncooked pearl barley
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained

1. Combine the first 7 ingredients in a small bowl, and rub chicken with half of spice mixture.
2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 2 minutes on each side or until chicken is browned. Remove chicken from the skillet.
3. Add a bit more oil if necessary, then add chopped onion, bell pepper and soy sauce. Cook over medium-high heat 3 minutes or until vegetables are lightly browned. Add broth, barley, tomatoes and remaining spice mixture, and stir well. Add chicken to skillet, nestling into veggie mixture. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer 55 minutes or until chicken is done. Let stand 15 minutes.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 1 chicken thigh and 1 cup barley mixture).

CALORIES 302 (15% from fat); FAT 5.1g; PROTEIN 22.3g; CARB 42.8g; FIBER 9.2g; CHOL 65mg; IRON 2.9mg; SODIUM 491mg; CALC 57mg

Sacred Life Sunday: Mother's Day

I asked my Mom what she wanted to do for Mother's Day, and she requested dinner at my house. I fixed spiced chicken thighs with barley, asparagus and for dessert fresh strawberries drizzled in balsamic vinegar. I never thought I'd move back to my hometown, but I'm glad I did for many reasons, mostly because I LOVE living near my parents and getting to share more of life with them.

Happy Mother's Day to ALL mothers! I believe if you're a woman, and in some cases a man, you mother something or someone -- dogs, the planet, your creative projects, other humans. Here's to sacred mother love.

"Seven of Pentacles" by Marge Piercy

Under a sky the color of pea soup
she is looking at her work growing away there
actively, thickly like grapevines or pole beans
as things grow in the real world, slowly enough.
If you tend them properly, if you mulch, if you water,
if you provide birds that eat insects a home and winter food,
if the sun shines and you pick off caterpillars,
if the praying mantis comes and the ladybugs and the bees,
then the plants flourish, but at their own internal clock.

Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground.
You cannot tell always by looking what is happening.
More than half the tree is spread out in the soil under your feet.
Penetrate quietly as the earthworm that blows no trumpet.
Fight persistently as the creeper that brings down the tree.
Spread like the squash plant that overruns the garden.
Gnaw in the dark and use the sun to make sugar.

Weave real connections, create real nodes, build real houses.
Live a life you can endure: Make love that is loving.
Keep tangling and interweaving and taking more in,
a thicket and bramble wilderness to the outside but to us
interconnected with rabbit runs and burrows and lairs.

Live as if you liked yourself, and it may happen:
reach out, keep reaching out, keep bringing in.
This is how we are going to live for a long time: not always,
for every gardener knows that after the digging, after the planting,
after the long season of tending and growth, the harvest comes.

This poem really resonates with me this morning, especially the last paragraph. Live as if you liked yourself. Today I get to make clear, mostly conscious choices about my life. I get to, as Camille Maurine says on the boundaries candle, treat my personal space as a sanctuary.

Quote of the day: "No is a complete sentence." (For me, easier to say than to hear.)

Spiritual practice of the day: Praying for people I'm upset with to have everything I want for myself: love, community, financial security, purpose, a love affair with God, safety, prosperity, joy, fulfilling work, usefulness, inner peace, positive relationships, good health, ease, enjoyment.

It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses Their Mind

Some days this is what following your dream looks like.
Some days this is what running your own business feels like.
Some days well-meaning customers piss you off.
Some days you don't do the right thing.

Fortunately, these types of days are rare.
Fortunately, I get to say when it's closing time.
Fortunately, I can go take a walk to clear my mind. Pray.
Fortunately, today is only for today. And tomorrow is a new day.

Sacred Life Sunday: Writer's Block

Never have I had less of a desire or ability to write. The word well is dry, has been for some time. Occasionally I'm able to scrape together a few phrases, but it feels like the slow burn of exercise after sitting on my ass for months. My effort is leaden, strained and I'm easily winded. Unless I keep at it, I'm afraid I'll never regain my strength or improve.

I have also neglected adding new Sacred Life Sunday participants to the current list. Please accept my apologies. I promise to catch up this week!

Blessings to all...

Sacred Life Sunday: Life Is Full of Itself

Lately my life has welcomed and experienced (some grudgingly) . . .

Sisters of the heart and soul. Laughter. The ocean. Rain. Sandy feet. Salt water taffy. Flirting. My sweet dogs. Candles. Questions. Listening. The SUN! The Tudors. Prayer. Expectations and disappointment. Tenderness. Fear. A friend's death. Mystery. Daffodils. Community. Yahtzee. Long roadtrips with David Sedaris and Anne Lamott books on tape. Courage. Forgiveness. Grace (thank you, Mike). Dog farts. Lust. Faith.

Cavorting With Goddesses

This is my accidental Anne Lamott impression. If you're curious why I'm wearing capris on my head, click here for the full story. In a nutshell, I'm getting ready for my trip to the Oregon coast and bought myself some new clothes. My new bachelorette lifestyle requires cuter outfits than the usual baggy sweats! I'm psyched to visit two of my favorite women on the planet: Sister Kathryn and Lisa Evans. I also have a hot Match.com date in Portland I'm super excited about! So much richness to enjoy, and I keep hearing the phrase Cavorting With Goddesses in relation to this journey.

Towards the tail end of hellish 2007 I knew that "ease and enjoyment" would be my motto for 2008. Like everything, it's part Universe, part the result of my choices. So far so good. :)

Notice of Price Increase ~ May 1, 2008

I want to let zena moon customers know that effective May 1, 2008 our candle prices are going up. The new prices will be:

2 x 3 small pillar - $10
2 x 6 medium pillar - $15
3 x 7 large pillar - $22
3 x 8 obelisk - $18
2½ x 3½ affirmation & element - $12
3 x 4 animal totem - $18
2½ x 3½ prayer - $14

I know this may seem like a steep hike, but in reality it's exactly parallel to the rising costs of our materials. Since our last price increase in 2003 we’ve absorbed a 30% increase in the cost of wax alone, plus significant increases in labor, scent, utilities and other materials which go into making our hand-crafted candles. I have avoided raising prices as long as possible -- too long, to be honest -- but to keep the company healthy and my dogs fed I need to face the inevitable.

We will still offer free shipping over $30 every full moon as well as special new moon discounts available to our newsletter subscribers (sign up here). You can also save a whopping 50% every day by shopping The Island of Misfit Candles.

Price increases are never easy, which is why this is only the second one I've done throughout zena moon's nearly 9 years in business. It's no secret that women business owners especially struggle with valuing their work and setting fair prices. So, if you don't have an accountant who actually pays attention to your Profit & Loss statement and works with you to keep your company solvent, I highly recommend finding one ASAP! Before hiring my new accountant I was pretty much operating in the dark in some areas, and that is one dumb way to run a business. Especially a business that reflects your heart and soul (which are of great value).

Thanks for your support, loyalty and patronage. I'm grateful beyond measure!