My quest

Come and join me on my journey to a more conscious life, my quest to find ways to a more meaningful, richer and fuller, but yet simpler life. My cardinal points are the real life green, frugality, an enjoyable family life, contribution to society, my mental and physical health, nature, happiness and of course cooking and the kitchen garden.

How can we make conscious decisions that are economically sane while good for the environment and contribute to our communities and the world at large? How do we create a life for ourselves and our family and friends that leaves us content and at peace, healthy and strong? Each moment only comes around once and what are the choices we are making? What are the consequences of our choices?

From recipes for the peasant gourmet to running an environmentally friendly household, from doing exercises to finding one's own center and intent, comments on society and the human psyche, analysis of things that are going on around us to wonderful spots in New England. I have studied media, sociology and literature, so naturally there will be posts pondering and analyzing issues tangent to these fields. I have worked many, many different jobs - graphic designer, festival coordinator, journalist, photographer and educator being just a few of them. I build furniture, love gardening and I work with anything paper or textile. As a legal alien German, living in suburban America I am often offered a slightly different perspective. Essentially though and most importantly I am bringing to this an unquenchable thirst for research and the iron will to make the most of what is left of my life - practically and philosophically speaking. Consequently this blog will appear quite eclectic - just my life and my interests.

In a way this is an all encompassing blog, yet trying to focus on the main points, on priorities - hence the name cardinal compass. This is a goal as wide as I can think, making it easy and difficult all the same. The connectivity of all things makes everything relevant and yet, I want to stay focused. There has to be a threshold of what falls within and what stays on the outside. But rather than constricting myself into categories, I have decided to just start. To 'just start' is a big thing for me, as I tend to over think, -plan and -analyze. But that is a whole blog topic in itself ...