What is Beauty? Entrees and Eating for Beauty

Hello "Beauty-fulls" (as Cali would say),

Another wonderful class last night. Cali demonstrated how to make pasta with zucchini! Yum. Tim asked when I got home last night, "Are we ever going to eat 'hot' foods again?" I was so thrilled to tell him, 'Yes! We just learned how to make RAW tomato soup tonight. I think Cali also mentioned hot chocolate in the last class (if you did Cali would you mind sending the recipe--that is a favorite of ours as the fall season starts).

We also talked about "Eating for Beauty" and Cali sent some more in depth links we should all check out.

. . .and what is beauty? A confident woman. A woman who knows who she is. A woman who knows her mission in life. A woman who serves others. A woman who carefully tends her stewardship--including her body.

At the end we discussing the "Have Do Be" paradigm. For example, "I must have money to buy a new house to be happy." Or fill in your own blanks. Cali challenged us to turn that on its head. First BE. BE HAPPY and the other things will be attracted in to your life. Heather shared a beautiful thought about using your intentions to label yourself. Instead of saying, "I am trying to become an artist." Declare, "I am an artist."

So, I declare to you:). . I love creating in the kitchen and preparing healthy foods to nourish my family.

Kristina shared a talk by Patricia Holland (Elder Holland's wife) last week. I have read it a few times and I went back and re-read it last week. It is beautiful. Here is an excerpt:

"I have pondered long and hard about the feeding of our inner self amidst too many troublesome things. It is no coincidence that we speak of feeding the spirit, just as we would speak of feeding the body. We need constant nourishment for both. The root word hale (as in “hale and hearty”) is the common root to words like whole, health, heal, and holy. President Benson recently said, “There is no question that the health of the body affects the spirit, or the Lord would never have revealed the Word of Wisdom. God has never given any temporal commandments—and that which affects our stature affects our soul.” We need so much for body, mind, and spirit to unite in one healthy, stable soul.

Surely God is well balanced, so perhaps we are just that much closer to Him when we are. In any case, I like the link between hale, whole, health, heal, and holy. Our unity of soul within diversity of circumstance—our “stilling of the center”—is worth any effort.

Often we fail to consider the glorious possibility within our own souls. We need to remember that divine promise, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21.) Perhaps we forget that the kingdom of God is within us because too much attention is given to this outer shell, this human body of ours, and the frail, too-flimsy world in which it moves.

Permit me to share with you an analogy that I created from something I read years ago. It helped me then—and helps me still—in my examination of inner strength and spiritual growth.

The analogy is of a soul—a human soul, with all of its splendor—being placed in a beautifully carved but very tightly locked box. Reigning in majesty and illuminating our soul in this innermost box is our Lord and our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, the living Son of the living God. This box is then placed—and locked—inside another, larger one, and so on until five beautifully carved but very securely locked boxes await the woman who is skillful and wise enough to open them. In order for her to have free communication with the Lord, she must find the key to and unlock the contents of these boxes. Success will then reveal to her the beauty and divinity of her own soul and her gifts and her grace as a daughter of God."

Read the talk in its entirety to find the "keys" to the box.

Cali mentioned last night that this was a special group of women:). I know it is.

Thank you all for coming and being a part of this!