Unfettered Mind

Cara Speckhals
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Campassionate Carnivore?
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Started this discussion. Last reply by Karen Turner Aug. 17, 2008.

 

Cara Speckhals's Page

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Beautiful post, Cara. Thank you.
August 28
Cara Speckhals added a blog post
I was rummaging around the Huffington Post today (rummaging because it can often be the on-line equal of dumpster diving for news) and I saw a post about Rush Limbaugh congratulating himself for having predicted Ted Kennedy's death. The irony is str…
August 26
Thanks Cara. My love to you and Jeanne.
July 16
Cara Speckhals added a blog post
Come monday morning, it's back to LA for me. I'll be packing my car, 13 year-old-dog included, and heading home. my mother has been sick for over four months now and i haven't written about the experience on an open forum - in large part because it'…
July 11
I hear you! I've just spent the last three days packing up heirlooms at my parents' house and among them are letters written between my family members - many of them dating back to the late 1800's. Clearly, I am wired to keep communication! It's tim…
May 29
Cara Speckhals updated their profile
May 29
Cara Speckhals updated their profile photo
May 29

Profile Information

City
Los Angeles, California
Practice level
experienced (<5 years)
About Me:
If you've cozied up the "Then and Now" podcasts, then you have heard me talking to Ken about the daily grind of being a Baker and a nanny in this crazy Shangri-la-la-Land, LA. I came to Buddhism while studying theatre and comparative religion at Berea College. As a non-Christian attending a Christian college, I found myself drawn to the calm, mystical logic of Zen Buddhism and spent those four years exploring it while in the States and Japan. Over the years I have worked with the Ven. Rev. Fukushima Keido and my dear friend, the Rev. Frank Jude Boccio, and I found that my practice was mostly deeply expressed through the physical practice of yoga and vegetarianism. At some point my Buddhist compass seemed to lose it's North, but it was a move to Los Angeles that changed that.

My mother introduced me to Ken McLeod, first via audio tapes from retreats she'd attended and then through her insistence that I attend class with him upon moving to Los Angeles after three years in Taipei, Taiwan. In many ways, I felt like I had spent all the years prior to meeting Ken winding my spiritual string around a very tight spool and in very short order he has made/helped me to unravel the whole thing into one long thread. I have only just begun to understand the phrase, "beginner's mind."

Cara Speckhals's Blog

Cara Speckhals

This sensation...this sameness.

I was rummaging around the Huffington Post today (rummaging because it can often be the on-line equal of dumpster diving for news) and I saw a post about Rush Limbaugh congratulating himself for having predicted Ted Kennedy's death. The irony is striking because it does not take an inert talk show host with a rabid audience to figure out that Glioblastomas' are deadly. Obviously, my reaction was some what emotional because of own attachment to Mr. Kennedy's well-being. After my mother was diagno… Continue

Posted on August 26, 2009 at 8:33pm — 1 Comment

Cara Speckhals

Along for the ride

Come monday morning, it's back to LA for me. I'll be packing my car, 13 year-old-dog included, and heading home. my mother has been sick for over four months now and i haven't written about the experience on an open forum - in large part because it's such an emotional time that i'm never sure from one day to the next if my words will hold any weight for me. it's difficult to articulate what it's like to face the mortality of my parent at such a young age. neither of us ever imagined going throug… Continue

Posted on July 11, 2009 at 5:06pm — 2 Comments

Cara Speckhals

email as scrap book

so many thoughts are jogging through my head that i can't quite find a starting point from which to jump.

in an effort to tidy up my life a bit, i decided that now would be a good time to go through and dump some of the thousands of emails that i have in my yahoo box. once they made the storage of past emails and infinite equation, i began holding onto any and all communications from people i care about. the line extends all the way back to 2002 when i started using my current handle. there are… Continue

Posted on October 10, 2008 at 4:37pm — 2 Comments

Cara Speckhals

ginger cherry scones

yesterday during bread class i was able to work with my usual partner, andrea. chef charles had seen to our separation in the week previous because he felt that my skills were over shadowing hers, which might have been true, but we work well together and the other young woman with whom i had been pared was too far behind to be anything but a babysitting gig for me. we worked on our loaves, talked about our lives and tried to have a laugh or two as the heat in the kitchen rose and the bread baked… Continue

Posted on September 3, 2008 at 7:27pm — 1 Comment

Cara Speckhals

My steak/Myself: in 3 parts

Yesterday I found myself volunteering to cook some T-bone steaks for my friends at a BBQ. The urge had been with me for several days and I knew that it would please Ben very much for me to do so, though he exerted no pressure. After weeks of watching "Top Chef" I wondered if it was was an easy as they made it look to braise a steak. Really? You just sear it and bath it in juice while it cooks? That's IT? Per what I had seen, I rubbed olive oil on the meat, all the while telling this cow or cows… Continue

Posted on August 4, 2008 at 10:33pm —

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At 12:38am on January 28, 2009, Jeanne Speckhals said…
...oh yeah, I love you!
At 12:38am on January 28, 2009, Jeanne Speckhals said…
I used this name generator.... but apparently they're being "cut."....
At 10:20am on May 14, 2008, Jeanne Speckhals said…
that cupcake looks delicious!
 
 

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