The Joy of Growing and Cooking Food

Posted on July 25, 2023 by Michael Kane

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne

It’s funny, because I’m a single guy and too many people have a sitcom level of understanding of the complexity of life, people are often shocked that I cook. As if I’ve spent the nearly forty years of my adult single life eating out every night. In fact, I cook nearly every night.

I love to cook, mostly because I love to eat, that’s something most people figure out about me in the first glance. I’ve been overweight since I was seven, not because I eat badly, but because I eat too damn much. But I love food, I love making it, I love eating it, it is definitely the place I find my comfort in this life. As a nomad, far too few of the people I care about are close to me, the price you pay as a nomad. But I can cook and eat where ever I am, and I do. There’s a line from a book or a movie, I can’t remember exactly where. The character says, I am a man of large appetites and this applies to me. I’m a man of limited appetites, but where they exist they are large and deep.

Like most cooks, I thoroughly enjoy cooking for people, but my solitary life leaves me few opportunities to do so. Part of the reason I’ll be moving east in a couple of years, will be to have more opportunities to cook for people I care about and like. The simple fact is, that if I have ever cooked for you, I dearly care about you.

As you are also quite aware if you read this blog regularly, I also love to garden. Eating food I have grown is a special things for me. When I can combine the two, the joy becomes exponential. My mother’s family is Italian and one of the many reasons I love growing tomatoes, is the opportunity to make tomato sauce from tomatoes I’ve grown. My time in California has also brought me to really enjoy making salsa from my own garden. When I owned my house in Loomis and had a quarter acre to grown on, I grew my own tomatoes, peppers, cilantro and so when I made salsa it was from everything I’d grown.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, I think because I’ve been a bit lonely. I’ve been cooking a lot, stews, curries, last night I made chili. Cooking makes me happy, I hope you have something to make you happy today my friends. ~ Rev Kane

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Miscellaneous Happiness

Posted on July 17, 2023 by Michael Kane
gratitude happiness

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude. ~ Denis Waitely

I’m wasted tired tonight, a bout of insomnia left me awake until 5AM this morning. I’m feeling sluggish and sick, I’ve got a bit of a sore throat and just generally feel out of it. So in terms of producing a new post tonight, there just isn’t much energy. So, a somewhat random array of things I’m grateful for and happy about tonight.

First, my niece and her fourteen and under softball team took third place in a national softball tournament. I’m so incredibly proud of her, she played well and her team had an amazing run!

My friend Marv, I’ll be interviewing him this week for a future post, recently turned 90, the same week he called me up looking for a job. Don’t tell me kids don’t want to work these days.

My new blog Alienbluebook.com is taking off, in just two months I’m seeing double to the hit rate of this blog that I’ve been writing for 13 years.

One of my closest friends did something amazingly altruistic this past week. He donated his kidney to his sister, while we all like to think we are that person, I wonder how many of us truly are that giving. Where kidneys are concerned I’m in good shape, a certain sibling to remain nameless actually has three, and I claimed the extra one decades ago.

Tonight for dinner I settled into what is becoming my Sunday night tradition in my new place. Having salad for dinner with all of the components coming from my little patio garden. Tonight along with the dill, basil, mint, cilantro and assorted lettuces I also had two small cucumbers. Very little makes me happier than eating food I grew.

This weekend I also started the full on planning process for leaving California in 18 months and moving east, as well as taking on the challenge of completing a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. My first attempt left me about 1200 miles short, but enough for a book, Appalachian Trail Happiness. Time to add those 1200 to the 1000 I’ve already done.

Finally tonight, I’m grateful for all the good books that exist. Currently reading Octavia Butler’s Oankali series, she’s a really amazing writer. Parable of the Sower and Fledgling are two other amazing books by her. I’ve also just read Hugh Howey’s Wool series, very good.

Take a minute tonight and think back on what you’re grateful for and what made you happy this week and have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane

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Our Most Popular and Favorite Posts

Posted on July 10, 2023 by Michael Kane

rev kane, slower pace of life, relaxing
Rev Kane relaxing in the arctic snow flurries

Our Most Popular and Favorite Posts

After doing the anniversary post last week, although it turns out my friend Bryan who texted me was correct and the platform was incorrect, it was my thirteenth anniversary not the eleventh for the blog. I think the platform restarted the count when I bought the full domain name. So after that post, I started going back through the history of the site and tonight decided tonight to post the most popular posts by readership as well as my favorite posts, click away and enjoy! This is a great post to share with friends. I hope you enjoy this look back and have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane

Some of my favorite posts

Appalachian trail, happiness, hiking
Me and my friend Jim on my first day on the Appalachian Trail

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Acceptance is the Way

Remember the Sweet Things

A Eulogy to Amuse the Penguins

Appalachian Trail Happiness and Three Important Questions

My Polar Bear Adventure

polar bear

Overcoming Demons to Find Happiness

What’s the Price for Being You?

Some Thoughts on Happiness and a Why to my Walk

Adventure and Happiness

Appalachian Trail Happiness: Precious Moments

Angels Pay it Forward, We Should Too

fear happiness

Fear is Killing Your Happiness

Havasu Falls

How to be Happy

The World’s Most Dangerous Reverend

Happiness in a 2300 Year-old City

Life Lessons from Granny

Four Trolls on a Bridge

Happiness is Floating in the Dead Sea

A Really Amazing Hiking Story

The most popular posts by readership

The overwhelmingly most viewed post on the Ministry of Happiness blog:

Happiness is Blue Poop

books, happiness, poetry

Appalachian Trail Happiness: The Book

Happiness is Poetry: Langston Hughes

The Need and Beauty of Quiet and Silence

The Dalai Lama on Simplicity

Happiness is Art: Van Gogh

Believe in yourself and be happy

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The People Who Truly Like You and Bring You Joy

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Michael Kane

In our lives we have people who like us. People who enjoy our company, who enjoy doing certain activities with us or just enjoy an opportunity to chat with us. But there’s a small sub-set of people who no matter what, are always happy to see you. Now I know, a lot of you immediately thought of parents, but they don’t fit into this group. You see at some point parents have to direct and chastise you, keep you from doing something you don’t want to do, for your own good usually.

Grandparents often fall into this role, they get to spoil you, wind you up and go home. Uncle’s like me get to do that as well, most of the time. But there’s that handful of people who are just always happy to see you. Soon I’ll be doing a post about my 90 year-old friend Marv, he’s one of those people, a really amazing guy.

What’s even rarer is to have one of these people who have known you your whole life. My granny was one, no matter how shitty life was, or what she was going through, as soon as she saw me, she would break into a smile. Today I got a phone message from my mom, one of these people, her name was Martha, passed away on Monday. My earliest memories of her were when my granny worked as a custodian with her husband at the local junior high. But given she was close to my godmother, I’m quite sure she knew me from birth. In all of my nearly 59 years I never remember a time when her first reaction to me wasn’t a smile, a big hello and a hug. Our conversations were always easy and full of joy, that kindness and joy is contagious so my reaction to her was always the same.

I didn’t spend a lot of time with her ever, we would only see each other once a year or so when I visited my family in the East. But regardless of the time that had gone by, or the circumstances, there was always a smile, always joy in seeing each other.

As you get older, there are fewer and fewer of these type of people in your life and so the loss of each one is felt more and more, you will be missed, rest in peace my friend. ~ Michael

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Happy Anniversary – Ministry of Happiness

Posted on July 2, 2023 by Michael Kane

An Update

What’s the line, trust but verify, which is a way of saying don’t trust anybody. So in putting together my post for next week I went back over my post history and it’s not my 11th, but my 13th anniversary on the blog! My good friend Bryan had texted saying he thought it had been longer, and obviously he was right.

Happy Anniversary – Ministry of Happiness

So I got my notification this week from my blog platform that I’ve hit the 11th anniversary of the Ministry of Happiness blog. This reminder always catches me by surprise and makes me happy. A quick reminder for those of you who haven’t been along for the whole ride. I originally started writing this blog as a way of getting out the information I’d researched related to happiness as a way of overcoming my own depression. I figured at the time I’d get maybe a year out of the blog and then move on to doing something else. This effort however turned into a surprisingly wonderful experience. I got a lot of positive comments about what I was writing and some people were even helped by me relaying my ideas and experiences. So I went past a year, then another and another and here we are in beginning year twelve.

The blog has changed over time. It was initially more focused on happiness research and providing inspiring comments and memes. It morphed over time to talk more about what’s happening in my life and the happiness and quality of life lessons I can pull from what happens in my life. That, and whenever I get the chance a dose of notes and photos from my travels.

So thank you all for continuing to read the blog, to sign up up and subscribe and comment on the posts. You really don’t understand for blog writers how much we truly appreciate your comments on posts, thank you so much for taking the time to comment. I remember when I started I was talking with a friend about a blog he had, he had 40 subscribers, I was blown away and couldn’t ever imagine having that many. So a huge thank you to the 245 people who subscribe to this blog and are actually willing to have every one of these posts show up in their inbox.

It’s been a big week, there have been a lot of good things going on. I got the reminder of the anniversary, I got the largest paycheck of my life which included my annual raise, and I got to eat the first tomato from my garden this year, it was delicious.

So thank you all very much and I hope you have a great week and a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane

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A Happy Garden Update

Posted on June 25, 2023 by Michael Kane

The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul. ~ Alfred Austin

I mentioned this in a post a few weeks ago, for the first time in a long time I have the opportunity to grow a garden. Sure, it’s a patio garden in containers but I’m just excited to be growing things. I’m growing a variety of herbs and vegetables but most importantly of all, I’m growing tomatoes. I’m not sure you can understand the joy I felt when I saw my first small tomatoes out there. It will be outdone only by the joy I’ll have when I bite into the first ripe tomato.

Growing tomatoes has a really deep connection and resonance with me. I’ve been gardening since I was five years old and demanded space in the family garden to grow radishes. Ever since then, whenever possible I’ve had a garden. My grandfather taught me how to grow tomatoes and roses. I didn’t really have an interest in roses but he suckered me in by pointing out the first step to growing roses was to go fishing. I did a lot of fishing as a kid. So we dug holes for the rose bushes, then we went fishing and brought back fish to throw in the holes as fertilizer, planting the roses over top of the fish. Up until his death at 90, he grew both roses and tomatoes every year.

He had a particular ritual related to the first ripe tomato every year. He would open a bottle of beer, grab his salt shaker and to quote him, “eat that tomato like an apple.” I honor him every year by following that ritual. So this little patio garden means a lot. Here are some photos of its current progress.

This weekend I had the pure joy of eating a bowl of salad purely from the garden.

It was small but it was fantastic! Have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane

And a photo update, a ripening tomato, I’m so excited!

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Reminiscing about Happy Times

Posted on June 19, 2023 by Michael Kane
happiness burning man
Rev Kane in his first year at Burning Man

You know, you could kind of call this post a greatest hits list. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about adventure, I’m entering year five at my job and over the last 15 years I haven’t worked more than three years in a row, so I’m feeling a bit boxed in, at least for another 18 months, which honestly feels as long as this sentence. So tonight, some reminiscing and yes I linked that to the song from the 70’s.

Cycling in Ireland – Three times I’ve done an amazing cycling trip in the Galway region of Ireland, it’s a really spectacular piece of the world.

ireland, selfie, happiness, travel
Rev Kane in Ireland

Hugging Grey Whales in Mexico – I took some time down in Baja to spend a week spotting grey whales. Amazingly, the interactions we had were fantastic and the most amazing of all, I go to hug an 80,000 pound grey whale in the wild.

Photographing Polar Bears in Canada – I spent five days in Churchill, Manitoba, the polar bear capital of the world. For three days I photographed polar bears and checked off a giant bucket list item when I saw the northern lights for the first time. Not only saw them, but saw an unbelievable display.

happiness, hiking, appalachian trail
My Polar Bear Selfie

Hiking in Scotland – I’ve hiked across Scotland three times. My latest adventure included doing both the Great Glen and West Highland Ways.

happiness scotland
Rev Kane goin native in the Scottish Highlands

Swimming with Whale Sharks – I took an afternoon one day while in Atlanta to sleep with the whale sharks in the Georgia Aquarium.

Walking the Appalachian Trail – I hiked a thousand miles of the Appalachian Trail, wrote a book about it, Appalachian Trail Happiness and made some amazing friends.

appalachian trail, hiking
Awesome, Backtrack, Rev Kan, and the Kingfisher

Living in Oaxaca – I spent three months living in Oaxaca, Mexico and absolutely fell in love with the place. It is a center for the Day of the Dead (DOTD) in Mexico and the first place I bought a piece of DOTD art from.

Havasupai Falls – The first lottery hike I’ve ever done, it took me three weeks of calling daily to score a slot. Havasupai Falls sits at the edge of the Grand Canyon and was one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been.

happiness adventure travel
Havasu Falls

Petra, Wadi Rum and The Dead Sea – This trip to Jordan checked off two huge bucket list items, floating in the Dead Sea and visiting maybe the most amazing ancient city on earth.

Pure joy floating on the Dead Sea

Burning Man – I spent eight different years attending Burning Man, the most indescribable, amazing, fascinating and relaxing week you can imagine.

Art, burning man
The Phoenix Art Installation at Burning Man
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Goal Setting for Happiness

Posted on June 12, 2023 by Michael Kane

I believe in goal setting, even for relaxation and vacation. So on my recent vacation I set some very specific goals. Goal number one was to do as little as possible. Goal number two was to maximize my relaxation by getting multiple massages over the week. Goal number three was to avoid work in any way for the week.

Unfortunately, I failed slightly on goal number three. I ended up having to redo a piece of paperwork for a conference refund that was due during the week. There was also an rather serious complaint that I had to be looped in on so the president called to loop me in as well as get my opinion on a decision he’s making as well as inform me of a decision he made that impacted (in a positive way) one of my staff members. I didn’t mind him calling at all, he’s our interim president until the end of the month, I call him Yoda because he’s the wisest administrator I’ve ever worked with. So for him, vacation interruption is fully allowed. So I did fail on this goal, happily earlier in the week and I did what you need to do when you fail, forgave myself, vowed to do better and moved forward. And in that I was successful and didn’t do any work the rest of the week.

On goals one and two I was extremely successful, two nice ninety minute massages, a lot of blog writing for my new UFO site alienbluebook.com, lots of walks on the beach. Lots of sitting and simply watching waves and afternoon naps.

Finally, I rolled up the coast a bit and did some photography with an elephant seal community and down into Cambria to shoot the Santa Rosa Cemetery.

I wrapped up the week at home working on my little garden, I’ve got two new tomatoes coming in. I made some great food and did a little horse wagering on the Belmont Stakes and ended up winning about $1000. So, tonight I sit here more relaxed than I’ve been in quite some time. I give my return to work about two days to ruin it, but it’s necessary to take these breaks and I really needed this one.

So my friends, take those breaks, get that down time, it’s a way to make your health and happiness a priority. Do it, and have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane

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Time for a reset

Posted on June 5, 2023 by Michael Kane

I restore myself when I’m alone. ~ Marilyn Monroe

It’s been a hell of a year. Honestly this spring semester has been the hardest semester since that very first semester of the pandemic. I’ve spent some time thinking about why? The best I’ve come up with is that after two years of full on pandemic everything, people finally feel like the world should be back to normal again. Except that the normal we remember no longer exists and those who are trying to squeeze reality back into that space are trying to jam a square peg into a round hole. Now trust, if you swing a big enough hammer hard enough, you can make that work, but not with out a lot of noise, splinters and destruction. And honestly, noise, splinters and madness feels a lot like the last six months.

I am beyond tired and worn out mentally, ironically this comes as I have finally started to feel myself again since the beginning of the pandemic. This past semester at work I’ve had more HR issues, fired more people and had more issues than in a normal three year period at a job. It’s been absolutely nuts, and it feels like people have begun to take the trust I’ve put in them and burn me with it. Add to that, massive employee turnover above and below me on the responsibility ladder and it’s chaos.

So it’s time for a reset, and I’ve decided the best way to do that was to take a week someplace quiet. To do nothing but walk on the beach, swim in a pool, listen to waves, get some massage and to write. So that’s what I’m doing. The place that I’ve retreated to is a place I found when I was the most burned out I’ve ever been at work. When I first retreated to this hideout on the central coast twenty years ago, there was no cell service here, which heightened the ability to disconnect. Now, with WiFi and the ubiquitous nature of cell towers that is no longer the case. So instead, my phone is on do not disturb, all notifications are off, and no email shall be checked this week. Let the work world get along without me this week, I don’t need it encroaching on my peace.

So today I walked around, had a nice dinner and tonight I sleep with the windows open and the sounds of the waves to fall asleep to, my idea of peace. We all need these times, and they’re hard to come by, but they are also incredibly important. So find time to reset, find a special place to do it and you’ll have happier days my friends. ~ Rev Kane

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Layers of Love

Posted on May 27, 2023 by Michael Kane

Love cures people – both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it. ~ Karl A Menninger

I’m someone who prefers to sleep warm in a cold room. Living in the Bay Area of California, on the San Mateo Peninsula wedged in between the Pacific coast and the San Francisco Bay a mile in each direction, cool nights are a given. so on my bed each night I have four blankets. The first is a basic store bought cotton blanket, the other three are much more special.

I have been blessed in my life to be surrounded by women who knit and crochet. As such, I’ve always had large numbers of homemade blankets at my disposal. The three pictured above are the ones the reside on my bed at night. The blue and white blanket was made by my mother years ago, the patterned blanket in the middle by someone who has been a student, a lover and an incredible friend, the white with diamond patterns on the left was made by my Granny.

These layers of love and warmth that I sleep under each night are constant reminders that I am/have been cared about. It takes hours and hours and hours to make a blanket like these and I appreciate the love imbued in each stitch. Sometimes the simplest things in life carry the most meaning.

So hang on to the simple demonstrations of love my friends, they’ll bring you happy days. ~ Rev Kane

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