"If you know more about each other, you're less likely to be afraid... you're less likely to fight."

I stumbled upon Heartbeat.fm when searching for a way to support a positive, peaceful force in/around Gaza. Like everyone else, I feel hopeless. But music WILL ALWAYS give me hope. So, today I am featuring Heartbeat Jerusalem, an organization of young Israelis and Palestinians who come together to make music, write songs, argue, hold hands, share stories and better understand each other through song and conversation. Harmony. 

In their words:

Heartbeat’s core program focuses on the establishment and facilitation of ensembles of young Arab and Jewish, Palestinian and Israeli musicians (ages 14-24 years old) who come together weekly for sustained music based dialogue programs in Haifa, Jerusalem, and Jaffa – Tel Aviv. During these weekly sessions, Heartbeat youth explore each other’s cultures and narratives in safe, politically neutral settings that support creativity and communication. Developing skills in improvisation, song-writing, performance technique, music theory, communication, and leadership while engaging in dialogue about their daily lives and the conflict that surrounds them, participants raise their critical consciousness, and harness their agency to change the status quo in and between their communities.

From Heartbeat's FB page:

Hello, My name is Rasha. I'm 18. 

I'm a high school student, and I often play music.

I'm an arab-palestinian living in Israel. 
I was born into the conflict, into one of the most vicious conflicts of the 21st century. 
This had occupied an integral part of my identity.
As time goes by, people continue to lose hope for peace.
Blind hatred and violence however, continue to increase while they're hiding behind censored news and stereotyping.

I believe in the power of words the power of music and the power of stage. It can reach anyone, it can make you think, hesitate and ask for a second. It can make you look at the reality you live from a different perspective. It can break these walls surrounding us physically and mentally. it simply provides hope and inner satisfaction.

Today, after a long period of hesitations and frustrations, of ignoring and facing, of reading and asking.. I've reached a point where i'm sick of hating. Blaming. and Hiding. Life in this cursed "Holy Land" is much more than this illusional life we are all living somehow. Life here is simply wrong. Human beings are being killed, Villages and families are being destroyed. and we are brainwashed to believe that the only solution for this situation is war. that people on the other side aren't really people. they're monster enemies.

I wish we will be able to see the full picture.. To see the enemy as a human being. And liberate ourselves from these barriers that we were born into, break these walls and 'start growing peaceful generations in this hopeless town' while taking the first step into the vision we all want to live.

Hope you enjoy the video... 

And this, also from Heartbeat's FB page: 

People do not see, people do not think, people love war, it gives them a reason for living, it gives them money, it gives them a sense of belonging, things happen like a wheel, dead people here, dead people there, real people, with family friends with desires with aspirations, and why? For principles? For land? For respect? I do not believe that there is any principle important enough to justify taking a boy's life — not Jewish, not Arab, not Korean, not German. I hear a lot of very extreme statements in recent days, statements that were waiting for the right moment to get out:”Death to Arabs" and "throw them into the sea”. I feel like there is nothing I will do or say that will change this situation, that it will change what those people did to those poor children from Gush Etzion or the lynching that happened yesterday in Jerusalem, the same people, the same anger, the same land. I wish things will change. I wish people would understand that we tried this method, so many times, the method of war, eye for an eye, it does not work! Fact! No, what works is sending lots of love to all those who need it now. And to all the children who say now that beyond the wall there are monsters, there are no monsters. There are children, some of them have guns, some have a teddy bear, some have a guitar, some have a bus. They’re all children. Let's enjoy this life as children.

- Dekel, 20, bassist

If you would like to donate to HEARTBEAT, you can do so here.  You can also donate, here for specific items and get involved by way of amplification/endorsement and/or volunteer work, here. 

GGC

Eat Well: Can Curry Love

The following post was written by my mom, WWW. Thanks, WWW! 

The other day, I found some new products in the Asian section of my grocery store—at least they were new to me—gluten free bean pastas made by Explore Asian. I am always trying new gluten-free products so I bought the mung bean fettuccini to try out.  I had already planned to make Thai curry that night. Instead of serving the curry over rice, I opted to use the bean pasta instead.

Explore Asian bean pastas are very high in protein, fiber and iron.  In fact, a serving contains 50% of you daily requirement of protein, 45% of your fiber, and 36% of your iron, not to mention 10% of your calcium.  (That’s 4 times the amount of traditional pastas.) One problem with a lot of the gluten free pastas is that many of them use white rice and potato starch, neither of which are very nutritious, so the bean pastas are a fabulous gluten-free option. They can be served with any traditional sauces, in fact, the Explore Asian website has lots of recipe ideas for their different pastas. (They also have black bean, adzuki bean, and soybean spaghettis.)

When David was in junior high, he got the cooking bug and later in high school, he became enamored of Thai food. I gave him a Thai cookbook for Christmas one year and a friend of ours was so taken by his love of Thai food that she gave David a kaffir MAKRUT lime tree since makrut lime leaves are an important ingredient in Thai cooking and can be hard to find in stores.  Unfortunately for David, who now lives in Boston, the tree is still here.

(I send him home with bags full of leaves when he comes to visit.) David’s tree has been growing in a pot on our front patio for 15 years and it provides abundant quantities of leaves for Thai cooking.

Anyone can grow makrut lime trees in pots. They like to be in the sun, but do fine in partial shade or even indoors.  They cannot tolerate frost, so if you live in a cold climate, bring them in during winter months and put near a sunny window.  If you love Thai food, I highly recommend growing a makrut lime tree.  They are really easy to grow and provide that flavor unique to Thai food. Otherwise, look for the leaves in Asian markets. 

Thai cooking can be time consuming, as David and I discovered when we started cooking from his cookbook.  But I have found that quick curries with a few important Thai flavorings can be made quite easily. Besides makrut lime leaves, galangal root—a type of ginger—tamarind paste, fish sauce, and Thai curry paste are other Thai flavorings that are good to keep on hand for making a quick curry.

The curry I made for this post was really simple. I used fried tempeh as the protein (you could also use tofu) and whatever vegetables I had on hand (green beans, tomatoes, and kale), but other good vegetables for Thai curry are mushrooms, peppers, bamboo shoots, carrots, and Chinese or sugar snap peas.

Quick Thai Curry with Tempeh and Vegetables

1 can coconut milk (I don’t use the low fat)

2 tsp Thai red curry paste

8 makrut lime leaves

2 tsp tamarind paste

2 tsp Thai fish sauce

1 package tempeh

1 small thinly sliced onion

2 cups vegetables of your choice (Chinese peas, sliced red pepper, green beans, kale, tomatoes, mushrooms, carrots, etc)

Thai basil, or chopped cilantro

In saucepan, combine coconut milk, red curry, and kaffir lime leaves.

Simmer for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, slice tempeh and fry in lightly oiled pan until browned on both sides. Set aside, and flash fry onions until tender. Add other vegetables and cook until just wilted.  Add vegetables to curry with tamarind paste and fish sauce. Bring to boil and simmer for a few minutes (vegetables should still be slightly crunchy). Add fried tofu and basil or cilantro. 

If using mushrooms or tomatoes (see first photo), add now. Cook another couple of minutes.  Adjust seasoning to your taste. Serve over rice or bean pasta.

Enjoy!

Love,

WWW 

what came first, the (baby) or the nest egg?

This week on Mom.me, I'm attempting to tackle the tricky subject of money as it pertains to families, specifically larger families and those looking to start families who don't, say, own a home... have established themselves professionally, etc. 

For those who have been reading since the beginning, you will know that there has been a pretty major evolution since 2005, when I started this blog. We have grown our family, our earnings and everything else since first becoming parents but for many, it is a prerequisite to get married, purchase a home, experience professional success, etc before having a child. Which I also understand. In a city, though, getting to a comfortable place financially takes... a long time. And even then, it's still... not exactly... comfortable? 

Marriage, house, job … the nest egg typically comes before the chicken. It’s just that, for us, we did it backwards.

I was not a very evolved person when I gave birth to my first baby. Hal and I lived in a tiny apartment and hated each other. Not exactly ideal and yet, the beautiful thing about having children before you’re “ready” or “stable” or have money and a job and a house and a dog (Oooh! But I had a dog! I had two dogs in fact!) is that you are in NO way set in your ways. Life is a spontaneous romp at that age (it was for me, anyway) and while it certainly was a rude awakening for me to be rudely awakened by an infant, I was young enough to know … that I knew nothing. (And when I thought I did know more than nothing, I was promptly put in my place by everyone else.)

Hal and I grew our marriage and our careers AFTER having our first child. And from there we became confident that with baby #2 and #3 and #4 we’d be able to do the same.

...Truth be told, it is EXPENSIVE to have four children in a city. But it’s also expensive to have one. And two. It’s expensive to live alone as a single person...

AKA, there is never enough money and there is never enough time and there is never enough of anything ever the end. 

Which is the point of this week's piece and while I CLEARLY come from a privileged place in which to write said post, this is my truth and I feel like it's a conversation worth having, especially for those of you out there who are waiting for the perfect time to make a baby. (It doesn't exist.)

"If you wait too long to have ALL OF THE THINGS you will end up with NONE of the things."

And yes, there is something to be said for making plans and having some order in the court before playing ball, but there is also something to be said for NOT making plans and just, you know, GOING FOR IT. Not that we were GOING for four children... 

But that's just it, right? Plans backfire. They always do! For us, they backfired in the best possible way, of course, but much like my pregnancy with Archer being the "surprise" that solidified everything good in this life, the twins' arrival signified what I had assumed to be the case all along: plans are LOL. In our experience, anyway. 

What do you think? What came first for you, the baby or the nest egg? I look forward to hearing from you/have a great weekend, everyone. 

GGC