Have Fun • Do Good

Martha Beck Interview: Finding Your Way in a Wild New World

2012-01-25T09:35:00.000-08:00

We’ve proliferated and thrived because we never stop playing, and the way to cope with the increasing complexity of the wild new world is to play more.

--Martha Beck, Finding Your Way in a Wild New World

Like many of you, I know Martha Beck from her O Magazine column (it's the first thing I read), and her many self-help books (e.g. Finding Your Own North Star, The Joy Diet). She always delivers good advice with a healthy dose of humor.

When I signed up for her mailing list in the fall of 2010, I received a PDF of the first chapter of her book-in-progress with the working title, The Team: How to Live an Abundant Life by Healing Yourself and the World. In the 24-page PDF, Martha describes "The Team" as people who are, "seekers with Big Dreams and a huge sense of mission about healing the earth and its people."

As I read, I found myself nodding yes, yes, yes. I'm on the Team. I bet you are too.

As soon as I saw that the book was coming out (it's now called Finding Your Way in a Wild New World: Reclaim Your True Nature to Create the Life You Want) I requested a review copy and an e-interview. I was *beyond* thrilled to receive both!

So, without further ado, enjoy this 8-question e-interview with Martha Beck about Finding Your Way in a Wild New World!

1. What metaphor would you use to describe the "Wild New World" we're living in now?

My favorite metaphor for this time in human history is a stormy sea, or possibly a very fat white-water rapid. Everything is changing very rapidly: industries are disappearing, methods of production and transferring wealth are being upended. And the change is accelerating so quickly that futurists now say they can’t imagine what will happen by 2050. Ray Kurzweil calls that year “the singularity,” because, like the physics of singularity in a black hole, change will become so rapid that it can’t be meaningfully measured. Whoo-ee!

2. You wrote about the importance of living within an infinity loop of play and rest. Why is that important?

We can’t stop the waves of change, so we’d better all learn to surf them. And surfing is fun—not easy fun that gets boring quickly, like tic-tac-to, but the kind of “deep play” that requires total attention in the present moment, and makes every moment feel incredibly full and rich. That’s the ONLY way to be successful in the world that is emerging now. And people who play in this way require plenty of rest. Without the rest period, neither the physical nor the mental energy to stay responsive and flexible can continue to develop. We should rest and play as if our happiness depended on it, because it does.

3. What tips do you have for people who have trouble resting and/or playing?

Stop thinking in words. That’s the first step to entering the zone of creative and rewarding “magic” in all traditional wisdom cultures. Without that nagging voice telling us we have to work and work and work (hello, Calvinist ethic), we’d play and rest as naturally as animals do. I recently tried to take a nap, and was absolutely tormented by the thought that I should get up and work, though I was extremely tired. I was just giving up on the nap idea when a very successful friend called and told me, “I just took a nap. To keep producing well, I have to listen to my body.” It’s truly bizarre how quickly the holomovement (that’s what some physicists call everything that exists) sends its messages to us. We should listen. But first, get some sleep!

4. How does having fun and doing good fit into our Wild New World?

It’s a time of increasingly drastic opposites, so if we’re not having fun and doing good, we’re absolutely wretched and creating misery. It is our duty to find a way of living joyfully. Somebody’s gotta do it.

5. You also wrote about how one way we can each find our purpose in this Wild New World is to look at how our greatest suffering connects with our greatest joy. What is your favorite example of someone who is healing themselves, and others, by connecting their greatest suffering with their greatest joy?

I’d say my entire squadron of coaches—so many magical and devoted people! But if you want me to select one individual, I’d probably do the trendy thing and pick Oprah. It just blows my mind that someone born into such an unfairly disadvantageous life set about creating such wild abundance for herself and others. All of us, at some level, can say that our life is our message. Her message is one of infinite possibility. Love it!

6. The foundation for your book seems to be dropping into "Wordlessness." Meditation and things like that are easy to do when our lives are going well, but can be easily pushed aside when we are stressed, or busy. What is the easiest way to drop into Worlessness in a hectic, public situation (e.g. waiting in line at the DMV)?

Actually, Wordlessness is no more important than the other three “technologies of magic,” Oneness, Imagination, and Forming. But Wordlessness is ALWAYS the first step to using the other three well, and it’s the one our culture has almost entirely lost. Just the idea that we have to meditate to drop into Wordlessness shows our cultural bias. Dropping into the nonverbal part of the brain happens whenever we’re very focused on a physical skill, from playing the piano to skiing, when we get lost in enjoying music, and often when we laugh. In fact, humor is one linguistic function that calls on the right hemisphere, so along with poetry and paradox, it’s a way to achieve Wordlessness by using words. The key is to get out of the narrow, merely verbal part of the brain and into the much bigger, broader, more sophisticated hardware that is the nonverbal brain.

7. Is there anything else you'd like to share with Have Fun, Do Good readers about Finding Your Way in a Wild New World, or about anything else?

Just that since I wrote the book, things keep getting wilder and more magical. In some strange way, I only expected to experience miracles while I was actually writing—when I finished this odd book, I thought, I’d go back to “normal” life. Turns out there really is a new normal! I keep meeting more and more people who feel themselves to be part of a transformation; wild animals keep treating me like a friend; information and circumstances keep aligning to help all of us create positive change. Buckminster Fuller wrote that “there are two kinds of resignation; one rooted in despair, the other in unconquerable hope.” The first half of my life, I felt the first way. Now I feel the second. Against all odds, there is abundant hope that the damage to nature—and humans—can heal.

8. How can folks connect with you and your work (online and offline)?

My website is staffed by incredible people who try to respond to email and make sure I get messages that need my personal response. Book groups and reading circles are forming to actually work through the processes I describe in the book. And I’m making a video workshop that will have downloadable video, so people can actually see and hear many of the things I describe in Finding Your Way. We’ll keep the public posted, via marthabeck.com, each time we think of a new way to connect. Let’s use those magical technologies AND the technologies of magic to keep creating a more cohesive, joyful, inspiring gathering of world-healers!

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Full disclosure: The links to Martha's books are linked to my Amazon Associates account. If you buy things on Amazon after clicking on the link, I get a small portion of the sale.

Tea, Cupcakes and Creative Bloggers in Your Town

2012-01-24T10:05:00.000-08:00

A couple weekends ago I facilitated a 3-hour Tea, Cupcakes and Creative Bloggers workshop at Teahouse Studio. It was so much fun, I want to teach it again soon. I'm planning on offering it at Teahouse again in the fall, but am also looking for other venues for this spring and summer.

If you know of a place that might like to host a TCCB gathering/workshop in the Bay Area and beyond, let me know in the comments, or email me at britt AT brittbravo DOT com. Maybe I can combine visiting your town with a vacation!

Cupcakes by Batter and Dough

Here are some of the nice things that the ladies who came for tea, cupcakes and creative blogging said about the afternoon:

"Thanks so much for the wonderful workshop - it was a real delight."

"Britt is a superbalicious teacher."

"Britt was an amazing teacher, and one of the greatest things about the class was all the incredible women that were there!"

"The class was great! . . Looking forward to getting the blog up soon!"

"The range of topics and activities was great, the professional content with the informal approach made it easy for people to ask Qs, and the way you kept it all to time was terrific!"

"Thanks again for the class yesterday. It was really invigorating!"

You can see more photos and reflections from the workshop on the blog Not Merely Living and on Room of Her Own.

P.S. The Juicy Blogging E-Course starts Wednesday, Jan. 25th. There are still a few spaces open if you'd like to join. You have to provide your own tea and cupcakes, but its still fun!

Your Free Winter 2012 Big Vision Worksheet (Jan/Feb)

2012-01-23T11:06:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year, Have Fun * Do Gooders!

To celebrate the New Year and new moon, here's a bee-you-tea-full Big Vision Worksheet (illustrated by the hubs) for you to record some of your goals for the year, season, and lunar month.

You can download the PDF for free from Dropbox by clicking here.

Instead of listing numbers beneath each category (like we've done in the past), we left the space open so that you can write a little, a lot, a list, or a paragraph.

Enjoy!

Juicy Blogging E-Course Starts January 25

2012-01-16T15:40:00.000-08:00

Just a quick reminder for folks interested in taking the Juicy Blogging e-Course that the early registration discount ends January 18th. The class begins January 25th. You can join the e-course on brittbravo.com (gift certificates are available!), and find out about upcoming classes by subscribing to the Juicy Blogging eNews.

We'll do three kinds of fun-work during the 4-week class:

Reflection questions to refine your blog’s purpose
Connection assignments to build community and traffic
Creative and juicy blog post prompts to get you writing

Past students have said about the class . . .

“So sad the class is over! . . . THANK YOU. I loved it.”

“The best part of it all is that it is just so much fun!”

“Loving this course. Blogging is addictive.”

“There is both an ‘art and science’ of blogging. You’ve presented resources for the science, and great tips for the art.”

“Britt’s e-course was great. It helped me find my blogging voice. It provided me with solid ideas and steps to improve my blogging practice. It also helped me plan for how to build my readership via blogging as well as other social media outlets. Wonderful course!”

“Britt Bravo’s Juicy Blogging class is giving me a lot to think about, in the best possible way!"

“The class is great. I am learning a lot, and the pace and format are working for me.”

“I have a much, much better idea what I’m doing with my blog now.”

“As a ‘non-blogger’ I found the Juicy Blogging E-Course to be of great value to me."

I hope you can join us. It's going to be fun!

Have You Called Your Grandma Lately?

2012-01-12T13:59:00.000-08:00

My Gram

I called my grandma today just 'cause she's awesome, and because I was moved by Kimberly Wilson's post i heart my gramma about her 99-year-old grandma's transition into hospice care.

If you have a special older person in your life, why not give them a call, or send them a card today? I'm sure they'll appreciate it, and you can tell them how much you love them.

Feel free to share a little about the awesome older person in your life in the comments. You can read a little about my grandma in my 2006 post, How to Look Fabu at Any Age: A Little Tribute to My Grandma.

Win a Copy of Global Girlfriends by Stacey Edgar

2012-01-10T10:32:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my post, What Have Fun, Do Good Books Are You Excited to Read in 2012?, I'll be interviewing Stacey Edgar, Founder of Global Girlfriend, for the January 2012 Big Vision Podcast.

I'm almost done reading her book, Global Girlfriends: How one mom made it her business to help women in poverty worldwide, and think you would enjoy it, sooooo . . . I'm doing a little giveaway.

Here's how to join in the fun:

In the comments of this post, suggest a question for me to ask Stacey during our Big Vision Podcast interview.
Be sure to include a way for me to contact you if you win (e.g. email, Twitter name, blog URL).
The last day to suggest a question for Stacey is Thursday, January 19.
The winner will receive a copy of Stacey's book, Global Girlfriends.

Ask away!

Full disclosure: The link to Global Girlfriends is attached to my Amazon Associates account. If you click on the link and make a purchase on Amazon, I get a small percentage of the sale.

3 Videos to Inspire You to Dance, Dance, Dance in 2012

2012-01-06T11:12:00.000-08:00

"I was a dancer all along"
- Lykke Li, Dance, Dance, Dance

Ever since I was a little girl I've loved to dance, which is why I keep watching this video that my friend, Gabriela, posted on her Facebook page last month: "Two year old doing what she loves. Dancing."

Don't you think the world would be a better, saner place if we all danced more? I'm going to say it here: In 2012 I would like to be a part of a dance flash mob, like the one that happened in the Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport:

Have you ever been a part of a dance flash mob? Was it fun? How did you find it?

In the meantime, I'll be dancing in my friend Heather's ShimmyPop! class at Hipline, a belly dance fitness studio in Berkeley and Oakland. If you live, or visit the Bay Area, you *must* take a class here. It's super fun!

Will you be dance, dance, dancing in 2012?

Why not start by trying this Hipline January Move of the Month!

What Have Fun, Do Good Books Are You Excited to Read in 2012?

2012-01-03T11:13:00.000-08:00

Is the book pile by your bed ready to topple over like mine is? I've got a big juicy stack to start off the New Year:

Global Girlfriends: How One Mom Made it Her Business to Help Women in Poverty Worldwide by Stacey Edgar. I'll be interviewing Stacey, the Founder of Global Girlfriend, for Have Fun, Do Good in early 2012.

With Liberty and Justice for Some by Glenn Greenwald. My virtual social changey book club is reading this for our January call.

Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart Cookin' Mamas by Mark Winne. There was one week where 2 or 3 people all recommended that I read this book, so I added it to my Amazon wish list and got it for Christmas. Wahoo! Looking forward to diving in.

Desire to Inspire: Using Creative Passion to Transform the World by Christine Mason Miller. I want to interview Christine about her book for the Arts and Healing Podcast. If you know her, I'd love an e-intro (:

Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation by Sharon Salzberg. I've been holding off finishing Lovingkindness, also by Salzberg,because I didn't want it to end, but now I will so that I can start Real Happiness.

The Artist's Way at Work: Riding the Dragon by Mark Bryan with Julie Cameron and Catherine Allen. A friend and I are reading one of the 12 chapters each month, and then getting together to discuss it. Seems like a good year to read this book since according to the Chinese zodiac, 2012 is the Year of the Dragon!

What have fun, do good books are you excited to read in 2012?

Full disclosure: I received a review copy of Global Girlfriends, and all of the books I linked to are attached to my Amazon Associates account. If you click on a link and buy something from Amazon, I get a wee percentage of the sale.

New Year, New Blog: VegCookbookClub

2011-12-31T10:04:00.000-08:00

So many people responded via email, comments, Facebook and Twitter to my post, VegCookbook Club 2012: Wanna Join? that I've created a new blog for our "club" activities: VegCookbookClub.com. Yay!

I'm super excited to start cooking and connecting with all of you who said you'd like to cook together from the same vegetarian, or vegan cookbook each month. Based on everyone's response, our January cookbook will be Appetite for Reduction: 125 Fast and Filling Low-Fat Vegan Recipes by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

Longtime Have Fun, Do Good readers, don't worry! I'll still be writing here regularly, but my Meatless Monday posts will move over to VegCookbookClub.com.

Happy New Year!

VegCookbook Club 2012: Wanna Join ?

2011-12-26T11:34:00.000-08:00

I'm thinking about setting up an online VegCookbook Club in 2012. Would you like to be a part of it?

You don't have to be a vegetarian, or vegan (I'm not) to join, you just have to want to eat less meat. You could join for a variety of reasons: environmental, animal rights, health, or because you want a creative cooking challenge.

Here's how I'm thinking it would work (I'm open to suggestions):

I'd select a vegetarian, or vegan cookbook for us to cook from during the month.
Each Meatless Monday I'll post about recipes that I tried from the cookbook.
You share the recipes you tried, how they turned out, and any changes you made as a comment, a link to your blog post, or a link to a Flickr photo of what you made.
On the last Meatless Monday of the month, I'll do a round up post of some of our comments, blog posts and photos, and announce next month's VegCookbook.

Does that sound like fun to you?

Which of these VegCookbooks are you the most excited to cook from in January?

Appetite for Reduction: 125 Fast and Filling Low-Fat Vegan Recipes by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
Plenty: Vibrant Recipes from London's Ottolenghi by Yotam Ottolenghi
Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen by Heidi Swanson
The Vegan Slow Cooker: Simply Set It and Go with 150 Recipes for Intensely Flavorful, Fuss-Free Fare Everyone (Vegan or Not!) Will Devour by Kathy Hester
Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

I'm looking forward to cooking with you!

Full disclosure: I have an Amazon Associates account. If you buy something on Amazon after clicking one of the cookbook links, I get a percentage of the sale.

Gift Certificates for the Juicy Blogging E-Course Are Here!

2011-12-20T11:06:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago a Facebook pal asked if they could give the Juicy Blogging E-Course as a gift. I asked the hubs if he would create a gift certificate for me, and here it is! Isn't it cute?

The next Juicy Blogging E-Course runs from January 25-February 15, 2012. The class consists of three kinds of fun-work:

Reflection questions to refine your blog’s purpose
Connection assignments to build community and traffic
Creative and juicy blog post prompts to get you writing

You'll find more info, and can purchase the class on brittbravo.com. If you'd like to give the e-course as a gift, just purchase the class for yourself, and then email me at britt AT brittbravo DOT com with:

Your gift recipient's first and last name
Your gift recipient's email
The date I can contact the gift recipient with more information about the class ( I don't want to ruin the surprise!)

I'll email the gift certificate to you as a PDF so you can give it to them yourself (:

Love List: A Have Fun, Do Good Holiday Gift by Sherry Richert Belul

2011-12-16T09:28:00.000-08:00

Today's post is a guest piece by my pal Sherry Richert Belul, founder of Simply Celebrate, and author of the e-book, Present Perfect: 127 creative, one-of-a-kind, no-to-low cost, wow-‘em gifts they’ll never forget. You can connect with Sherry on SimplyCelebrate.net, her blog (Cherry Blossom Soup), Facebook and Twitter (@simplycelebrate).

Love List: A Have Fun, Do Good Holiday Gift
Want a great do-good, feel-good holiday gift that doesn’t cost a dime? A Love List is one of the best gifts you can give someone. It's simple and fun to create. Here’s what you do:

1. Set aside an hour to make your Love List.

2. Play some music and maybe dig up a photo of the gift recipient. (That’s for inspiration, but you might decide to include it as part of the presentation!)

3. Get out a pen and paper and start thinking about things you love about this person. Let yourself be open to all the thoughts that drop in.

Do you love her laugh?
The way she greets you with a warm hug whenever you see her?
Those Rilke poems she gave you?
The memory of your college trip to Paris when you wore the blue beret and she donned the red one?!

Let yourself brainstorm about who she is, things she does, what you’ve learned from her, funny stories, and favorite memories. Give yourself permission to be as silly, sweet, sincere, or sarcastic as you want! This gift is about being exactly who you are and reflecting back to her who she is to you.

4. Once you have your list, you can present it as-is, or get creative. I've posted a video on Simply Celebrate that will give some ideas on creative ways to present your Love List. You can also request a free Love List download that will give you even more ideas for how to present your Love List, as well as a ready-made list to complete.

People are always thinking of original and fun ways to turn their lists into a unique gift. I’d LOVE to hear yours!

The Love List feels good to make and is great to receive. I hope you’ll try one for someone you dearly love!

Empowering Low-Income Families to Create Prosperity: Interview with Ben Mangan

2011-12-14T10:42:00.000-08:00

"It's important to never lose track of leveraging the strengths of the people that we serve. I think that when you take a strengths-based approach to working with folks who are struggling in some way, it's part of the way that you build optimism. It's one of the most important ways that you position the people that you're serving to be successful over time.
~ Ben Mangan, EARN

Ben Mangan is the President, CEO, and Co-Founder of the nonprofit, EARN. Since 2001, EARN has helped tens of thousands of low-income people enter the financial mainstream, and move toward prosperity with savings accounts for the unbanked, and matched accounts for low wage workers to invest in education, first homes, and microenterprise.

Ben has more than 15 years of experience in policy leadership, innovation and strategic management. Ben was the Midwest Practice Leader for Ernst and Young's Public Private Development Group in Chicago, and served as Director of Organizational Strategy for the international micro-payments company, beenz.com.

He is a regular blogger for the Huffington Post and SFGate, and serves as a lecturer on the faculty of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College (which is how I know him), and a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School.

You can listen and subscribe to the Big Vision Podcast via iTunes, or on the player above. If you have suggestions for people I should interview, please email me at britt AT brittbravo DOT com.

*Show notes*

Learn more about Ben and EARN:

Website: www.earn.org
Facebook: facebook.com/earnorg
Twitter: @earn

Connect with me:

Website: brittbravo.com
Twitter: @Bbravo
Facebook: facebook.com/britt.bravo
Speaking and workshop calendar: brittbravo.com/speaking

Jan. 15: Tea and Cupcakes with Creative Bloggers (Berkeley, CA)
Jan. 25-Feb. 15: Juicy Blogging E-Course (Virtual)
Feb. 11: Blogging for Writers (Berkeley, CA)

Music: "Mango Delight," by Kenya Masala. Connect with Kenya through CD Baby and Source Consulting Group.

Connect with an Old Friend This Week

2011-12-05T11:56:00.000-08:00

"Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together." -Woodrow Wilson

No Meatless Monday post today 'cause instead of trying new recipes, I spent the week getting reading for a reunion with three old friends. Spending time with them was like having an endless bowl of delicious and nourishing soup.

Connect with an old friend this week.

Call, Skype, write, have coffee. Whatever feels right.

It will fill you up.

Promise.

25 Gifts to Make with Your 2011 Photos

2011-11-30T11:32:00.000-08:00

Who'd like to make more holiday gifts this year?

Me!

But I'm often stumped for ideas.

One raw material I have more than enough to work with is photos, so today I'm brainstorming holiday gifts to make with them.

I've listed 25 ideas below, along with 7 websites that can help you with your creations:

Book
Bookmark
Calendar
Coasters
Cookbook

Deck of cards
DVD slideshow (with or without narration)
Family history book
Framed photo (you could decorate the frame too)
Greeting cards

iPhone case
Magnet
Mouse pad
Mug
Notepad

Ornaments
Photo album
Postage stamps
Postcards
Poster

Puzzle
Stickers
Scrapbook
Tote bag
T-shirt

7 websites to help you create your gifts:

Blurb
Flickr
Kodak Gallery
Moo
Shutterfly
Snapfish
Zazzle

What are some other ideas for gifts you can make with photos?

All photos are by me (:

6 Healing Artists

2011-11-29T10:07:00.000-08:00

"Art is a wound turned into light." - Georges Braque

As I mentioned in my Fun-Do list last week, one of my favorite things to do is collage. The process of combining words and images helps me to work things out in a different way than writing in my journal does. I truly believe that art can heal, which is why I love producing the Arts and Healing Podcast for the Arts and Healing Network.

This year I interviewed six healing artists:

Quinn McDonald

Author of Raw Art Journaling: Making Meaning, Making Art

Jenny Doh

Author of Art Saves: Stories, Inspiration and Prompts Sharing the Power of Art

Susannah Conway

Creator of the Unravelling e-courses, and author of This I Know: Notes on Unraveling the Heart

Kim Rosen

Author of Saved by a Poem: The Transformative Power of Words

Liz Lamoreux

Author of Inner Excavations: Explore Your Self Through Photography, Poetry and Mixed Media

Jamie Ridler

Creative living coach at Jamie Ridler Studios, and creator of one of my favorite podcasts, Creative Living with Jamie

You can listen to these interviews, and many more, on the Arts and Healing Network's website, or on iTunes. If you have ideas for people we should interview, email the Arts and Healing Network team at ahn AT artheals DOT org.

Full disclosure: The books I linked to are attached to my Amazon Associates account, which means that if you buy anything after clicking on the link, I receive a percentage of the sale.

Meatless Monday: 2 Soups, 1 Salad, 2 Casseroles + Cosmos Apple Pie

2011-11-28T12:29:00.000-08:00

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

― Carl Sagan

One of the items on my Fun-Do List for Thanksgiving was to try some new recipes, and boy, did I! I made a soup, a salad, and two casseroles from Vegan Holiday Kitchen by Nava Atlas, baked the most amazing Cosmos Apple Pie with Olive Oil Double Crust from Vegan Pie in the Sky by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, and made a soup from Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons, also by Nava Atlas. I hope these photos will inspire your winter holiday menus!

Butternut squash on its way to becoming soup

Coconut Butternut Squash Soup from Vegan Holiday Kitchen.
Unbelievably delicious. You're in luck 'cause the New York Times published the recipe!

Autumn Harvest Stew from Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons.
Yum, yum. This recipe is available through Google Books.

Pistachios ready to roast and toss in salad . . .

Mixed Greens with Green Apples, Beets and Pistachios from Vegan Holiday Kitchen.
I liked this salad. It has *a lot* of fruits and veggies in it, a few too many for some of my diners!

Ravioli with Sweet Potatoes and Sage from Vegan Holiday Kitchen.
Delish. How can you go wrong with ravioli and sweet potatoes! The hardest part was finding vegan ravioli. I ended up buying fresh Roasted Butternut and Chestnut Ravioli in Pumpkin Pasta from Market Hall in Oakland. I'd like to make it again with Rising Moon's vegan ravioli.

Hearty Lentil and Mushroom Shepherd's Pie from Vegan Holiday Kitchen.
Also yummy, and you're in luck again 'cause Fat Free Vegan Kitchen posted the recipe.

Pretty veggies ready to roast

Veggies roasted. Don't they look like jewels?

Cosmos Apple Pie with Olive Oil Double Crust from Vegan Pie in the Sky ready to bake. This is only the 4th pie I've ever made (see my Old Fashioned Chocolate Pudding Pie with a Graham Cracker Crust), so I'm proud of how it turned out: pretty and delicious!

It's not burned, that's cinnamon and sugar baked into the top!

Slice for day after Thanksgiving breakfast!

*************

What yummy meatless dishes did you make last week?

Full disclosure: The cookbooks I linked to are attached to my Amazon Associates account, which means that if you buy anything after clicking on the link, I get a percentage of the sale. I received review copies of Vegan Holiday Kitchen and Vegan Pie in the Sky.

Your Fun-Do List for Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-11-22T10:22:00.000-08:00

I'm a huge to-do list maker, which is a blessing, and a compulsion. My lists keep me on track, but they can also be overwhelming. I'm definitely ready to relax and have fun during the long weekend, so instead I've made a fun-do list:

Have fun with the hubs (resist the temptation to tackle house fixing up to-dos!)
Try a new recipe
Go for a walk, or hike
Write cards
Read
Go to the movies (anyone else want to see The Muppets?)
Visual journal/collage
Buy something red to wear during the holidays

What's on your fun-do list?

Photo: Our super fun Thanksgiving in Maine.

Meatless Monday: Vegetarian and Vegan Thanksgiving Ideas

2011-11-21T08:11:00.000-08:00

I didn't make any interesting meatless dishes this week, so instead of posting my photos and recipe notes, I'm including a link to my Vegetarian and Vegan Thanksgiving idea board on Pinterest. Even if you aren't a member of Pinterest, you can still see the board, scroll through the photos, and click on the recipe links. Just click here to view it.

What meatless Thanksgiving dishes are you making this week?

Friday Fun Links: Creativity, Yummy Food, Blogging, Do-Gooding and Events

2011-11-18T11:04:00.000-08:00

A collection of blog posts and articles that caught my eye this week. I've organized them into sections: creative ladies, yummy food, nonprofits/do-gooding, blogging/social media, and events, so that you can peruse the ones that fit your interests.

Creative Ladies

Planning the Year Ahead on Jamie Ridler Studios

Wish on Create Your Own Beautiful

Holiday Poetry Book (Your Other Names) by Tara Sophia Mohr

I'm 42 and Full of Gratitude and Appreciation on SurfPrayLove

Unfun Decisions: Scraping Bottom by Gwen Bell

Forget Your Perfect Offering by Gwen Bell

Creating With Kids :: Still Shots from Goddess Guide Book

Something for the Weekend by Susannah Conway

Upcoming Right Brain Business Plan Events by author, Jennifer Lee, and licensed facilitators

Nonprofits and Do-Gooding

photo and t-shirt by kimberly wilson

Pig Animal Sanctuary on Tranquility du Jour

Drumroll Please...Announcing Ten New Social Citizen Ambassadors on Social Citizens

Top 8 Tips for Writing a Fundraising Letter by Joanne Fritz

New podcast: Accessing student loan relief now on Idealist

Fast Company Profiles Open Philanthropy on Philanthropy 2173

Free eBook on Volunteer Management on Wild Apricot

Yummy Food

Kalyn's Favorite Baby Arugula Salad with Lemon, Balsamic Vinegar, Parmesan, and Pine Nuts on Kalyn's Kitchen

Nava's Hearty Lentil and Mushroom Shepherd's Pie on FatFree Vegan Kitchen

Warm up with Winter Squash Soup on the Kind Life

Blogging and Social Media

Why Bloggers Should Self-Publish on ProBlogger

Get Your Second Edition Copy of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Today (for 25% off) on ProBlogger

The Best Blog Growth Strategy is to Say Thank You . . . A Lot! on ProBlogger

Why Data Smog May Be Making You Depressed by Dr. Andrew Weil on Time.com (hat tip to Beth Kanter for tweeting this)

Mindmap of How to Focus in the Age of Distraction (hat tip to whomever's Facebook page I found this on. I can't remember!)

Events

December 6 (Berkeley): Seeds of Resilience: Women Farmers Striving in the Face of Climate Change hosted by Women's Earth Alliance.

December 8 (San Francisco): The Power of Women Leading from the Heart with Nina Simons

**********

What posts, articles and events inspired you this week?

Leaf photo by me.

Juicy Blogging Classes in January (Berkeley + Online)

2011-11-16T12:53:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let those of you who are bloggers, or who have blogger pals, know about two classes (in Berkeley and online), that I'll be teaching in January 2012.

Tea and Cupcakes with Creative Bloggers
Sunday, January 15, 2012
1-4 PM
Teahouse Studio
1250 Addision St., Ste. 208
Berkeley, CA

Sip tea, eat cupcakes, and connect with creative bloggers (like you!). After we’ve had time to eat and chat, we’ll do some fun activities to help you generate lots of juicy blog posts in 2012. I’ll also share tips for increasing traffic and engagement.

$35 when you register by January 8th. Use the discount code YUMMYFUN
$42 after January 8th.
Join us: http://bit.ly/blogandcupcakes

Juicy Blogging E-Course: The Art and Play of Blogging
A class for artists, writers, creative entrepreneurs and do-gooders
January 25-February 15, 2012

Do you want to re-energize your blog and blogging practice, or rediscover the ♥ of your blog? During this 4-week e-course you’ll play with fun assignments through a private blog with your fellow juicy bloggers.

The course consists of three kinds of fun-work:

Reflection questions to refine your blog’s purpose
Connection assignments to build community and traffic
Creative and juicy blog post prompts to get you writing

$75 when you register by November 22. Use the discount code SUPERJUICY12
$99 when you register by January 18. Use the discount code JUICYWINTER12
$125 when you register after January 18.
Join us: http://bit.ly/juicybloggingjan25

P.S. Lemme know if you'd like me to host a Tea and Cupcakes with Creative Bloggers in your town!

Why Are You Inspired (or Not) by the Occupy Movement?

2011-11-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

As a Bay Area liberal blogger who lives in Oakland, I feel like I should be taking part in occupations, posting photos, interviewing organizers, and sharing ways to get involved, but I haven't done any of those things.

I want to be excited about this global movement, but I'm not. It just makes me sad, and a bit tired.

Many of the letters people have posted on We Are the 99 Percent break my heart, but they feel like letters into the void. Who will listen? Who will help them?

I wish that all of the creativity, organizing and innovation that has gone into gathering people, spreading the word, making signs, building tent villages, taking photos and videos, marching and protesting was going towards helping the people who wrote those letters.

The Occupy movement feels like the human race is screaming, "Help! Something is not right! Life is out of balance!" Thing is, there isn't anyone there to hear us, except us.

Only the 99% can help the 99%. Only we can help each other. How are we going to do it?

What am I missing? Why are you inspired (or not) by the Occupy movement?

Flickr photo credit: Occupy Protest tent 99 percent by Ano Lobb.

Meatless Monday: Dilled Potato, Pink Bean and Green Bean Soup + Sunday Night Pasta + Vegan Chocolate Pudding Pie

2011-11-14T11:51:00.000-08:00

Meatless Monday is a nonprofit initiative of The Monday Campaigns. Their goal is to help reduce meat consumption by 15% to improve personal and planetary health. Each week I share meatless recipes I've tried from cookbooks and online. You can see past Meatless Monday posts by clicking here.

Thursday night I made an old stand-by, Dilled Potato, Pink Bean, and Green Bean Soup from Vegetarian Soups for All Seasons by Nava Atlas, which lasted us through the weekend.

Sunday night we were a little low on groceries, so I made a quickie pasta. While the spaghetti was cooking, I chopped up a head of garlic, and sauteed it in garlic oil with red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, and a little butter (you can use margarine, if you're vegan). In a separate little pan I sauteed a can of chick peas (rinse them first), and frozen peas in garlic oil (thanks, Heather, for the pea idea). I added the pasta to the garlic mixture, heated it through for a bit, and served it with the garbanzo and pea mixture on top along with some parmesan cheese for the hubs, and nutritional yeast for me. Delish.

We're coming into that time of the month when all I want to eat is chocolate pie (you know what I'm talking about ladies), so I broke out my review copy of Vegan Pie in the Sky by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, and made their Old Fashioned Chocolate Pudding Pie with a Graham Cracker Crust. Yum! You're in luck, 'cause the recipe was in the New York Times last week in Tara Parker Pope's article Can You Bake a Vegan Pie? If you make one, let me know how you like it.

What yummy meatless dishes did you make last week?

Full disclosure: The cookbooks I linked to are attached to my Amazon Associates account, which means that if you buy anything after clicking on the link, I get a percentage of the sale.

Dancing for Peace: Big Vision Podcast with Sara Potler

2011-11-13T17:33:00.000-08:00

"We had a blast! These kids over the course of the next 18 months did not really fully comprehend that they were learning basic social, emotional, and civic competencies because they were moving and dancing the entire time." -- Sara Potler

Sara Potler is the Founder and CEO of Dance 4 Peace. Dance 4 Peace is a conflict resolution, and civic education program that promotes empathy, understanding, mediation skills, anger management, and emotional and civic engagement through dance in youth around the world.

Dance 4 Peace began in Bogotá, Colombia as part of Sara's Fulbright Scholarship project in 2007. In conjunction with Aulas en Paz (Peaceable Classrooms), a multi-component pedagogical project designed to promote social and civic competencies and conflict resolution among primary-school students, Dance 4 Peace was designed, implemented, and evaluted in public schools in the outskirts of Bogotá. Today, the program works in Washington, D.C., New York City, Colombia, the Philippines, and Nepal.

You can listen and subscribe to the Big Vision Podcast via iTunes, or on the player above. If you have suggestions for people I should interview, please email me at britt AT brittbravo DOT com.

*Show Notes*

Learn more about Sara and Dance 4 Peace:

Dance 4 Peace website
Dance 4 Peace on Facebook
Dance 4 Peace on Twitter

Connect with me:

Music: "Mango Delight," by Kenya Masala. Connect with Kenya through CD Baby and Source Consulting Group.

13 Women Changing the World

2011-11-09T15:43:00.000-08:00

Today I saw a blog post on Twitter about 10 Men with the Capacity to Change the World. I've interviewed soooo many amazing women for the Big Vision Podcast who are changing the world that I thought I'd post a sampler of interviews with 13 women from over the last four years. I've included links to each audio interview, as well to transcripts (when they're available). You can listen to all of the interviews, plus 55 more conversations with Big Visionaries on iTunes.

1. and 2. Amira Diamond and Melinda Kramer
Co-Directors, Women's Earth Alliance. WEA unites women on the frontlines of environmental justice causes by coordinating training, technology, and financial support.
Listen: Big Vision Podcast interview (April 20, 2010)
Read: Transcript on Have Fun, Do Good

3. Anna Lappe
Author of Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It. Co-author of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen, and Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet.
Listen: Big Vision Podcast interview (May 18, 2010)
Read: Transcript on Have Fun, Do Good

4. Cristi Hegranes
Executive Director and Founder, Global Press Institute. GPI (formerly the Press Institute for Women in the Developing World) uses journalism as a development tool to educate, employ and empower women, who produce high-quality local news coverage that elevates global awareness and ignites social change.
Listen: Big Vision Podcast interview (February 6, 2008)
Read: Transcript on Have Fun, Do Good

5. Favianna Rodriguez
Activist printmaker and digital artist. Favianna's vibrant posters deal with issues like war, immigration, globalization, and social movements.
Listen: Big Vision Podcast interview (December 22, 2008)
Read: Transcript on Have Fun, Do Good

6. Halle Butvin
Founder and Director, One Mango Tree. One Mango Tree uses a fair trade model to provide income generating opportunities for women artisans in impoverished and conflict-ridden areas of the globe.
Listen: Big Vision Podcast interview (September 7, 2011)

7. Jensine Larsen
Founder, World Pulse. World Pulse is a global media and communication network devoted to bringing women a global voice.
Listen: Big Vision Podcast interview (November 1, 2010)
Read: Transcript on Have Fun, Do Good

8. Kathy LeMay
Author of The Generosity Plan: Sharing Your Time, Treasure, and Talent to Shape the World. Founder and CEO of Raising Change. Raising Change helps organizations to raise capital to advance social change agendas, and helps individuals create Generosity Plans to change the world.
Listen: Big Vision Podcast interview (May 31, 2011)

9. Lisa Witter
Author of The She Spot: Why Women are the Market for Changing the World -- And How to Reach Them. Chief Change Officer and Partner, Fenton. Fenton creates issue campaigns that make change.
Listen: Big Vision Podcast interview (October 15, 2009)
Read: Transcript on Have Fun, Do Good

10. Marsha Wallace
Founder, Dining for Women. Dining for Women cultivates educational giving circles that inspire individuals to make a positive difference through the power of collective giving. They fund programs that foster good health, education, and economic self‐sufficiency for women and girls living in extreme poverty
Listen: Big Vision Podcast interview (September 30, 2010)
Read: Transcript on Have Fun, Do Good

11. Naomi Natale
Founding Artist, One Million Bones. One Million Bones is a collaborative art installation designed to recognize the millions of victims and survivors who have been killed or displaced by ongoing genocides and mass atrocities in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Burma.
Listen: Big Vision Podcast interview (July 23, 2011)

12. Seane Corn
Founder, Off the Mat, Into the World. OTM uses the power of yoga to inspire conscious, sustainable activism and ignite grassroots social change.
Listen: Big Vision Podcast interview (April 17, 2009)
Read: Transcript on Have Fun, Do Good

13. Zainab Salbi
Founder, Women for Women International. Women for Women International provides women survivors of war, civil strife and other conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency. Author, Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam.
Listen: Big Vision Podcast interview (May 3, 2009)
Read: Transcript on Have Fun, Do Good

For more inspiring stories about women changemakers, I highly recommend the 5-part PBS series Women, War and Peace. All of the episodes are available online.

What women do you think are changing the world?

Full disclosure: The books I've linked to are attached to my Amazon Associates account, which means that if you buy anything after clicking on the link, I get a percentage of the sale.