Our world today is divided along many fractures and fissures such that we often focus more on the things we have different rather than the things we have in common. Focusing on the differences creates battles between groups that do not need to exist. It is in the hope of bridging these differences through dialog that I provide the thoughts, ideas, emotions and feelings within these pages. Ultimately, we all are part of this one world, not individual micro shells.
Please feel free to explore the varied and different thoughts and wanderings in the posts on my site. I hope you enjoy them, and I look forward to your feedback.
About Jocelyn
in Just Stuff on July 24, 2011
Jocelyn Parkhurst, Ph.D. -- President and Executive Director of Changing Tides
I received my Ph.D. in Political Science at Washington State University in 2004. After teaching for 2 years at Soka University in Orange County, California, and then 1 year at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, in 2006, I began a five year full time faculty run at Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho. Currently, while still teaching numerous online courses at a variety of online and ground based institutions, I am the President and Executive Director of a non-profit organization, Changing Tides, Inc., that seeks to connect at risk groups to education.
I have been lucky and privilged to find a wonderful husband, and we work to blend our two families into one. Much of what you will see on these pages reflects this effort and the positive outcomes, and struggles, that we experience.
I hope you enjoy!
Chicken Soup – Magic Remedy for Cold and Flu
in NomNomNom on October 24, 2011
Ingredients
4 cans (10oz ea) chicken broth
1 roasted chicken whole
2 tbsps. olive oil
2 tbsps. minced garlic
1 yellow onion diced by hand into 1 inch pieces
1 can whole kernel corn
2 12oz. bags of microwavable mixed vegetables (Birds Eye Steamfresh: broccoli, carrots, sugar snap peas and water chestnuts mix)
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. oregano
1 tbsp. thyme
1 tsp. pepper
4 cups water
Directions
Put one cup water in to a large crock pot and turn on to high. Shred roasted chicken into the crock pot. I tend to use a pre-roasted chicken from the store as I usually make this when I’m sick with the flu. You can also roast your own chicken. Be sure to use good seasonings when roasting the chicken. Do not put the skin in the soup pot.
Heat the four cans of chicken broth in a pan to boiling. Pour over the chicken in the crock pot. This helps to speed up the cooking process. Cover and let sit as you prepare the veggies.
Pour two tablespoons of olive oil into a large skillet. Sauté garlic and onion for about 5 minutes. Add in corn and simmer for 2 minutes. Add in oregano, thyme, salt and pepper. Crumble the oregano and thyme as you put it in to release the flavor if using dried seasonings, which is what I use for soups. Stir until well incorporated. Add in frozen vegetables and stir well. Cover and let simmer for about 5 minutes until veggies are heated. Pour veggie mixture into chicken mixture in the crock pot. Heat the remaining water until it is boiling. Add the water in until the crock pot is full. Let cook for 2 to 4 hours. Ladle over rice or dip fresh sour dough bread into a hot steaming bowl.
To release the healing magic of the chicken soup, it must be made at least in part by one other than who is sick. It is best if prepared and given in bed to the ill person. It’s all about the magic!
**If you do not have a crock pot, you can do all the above in a large pot set on low/simmer.
No Wheat Vegan Banana Bread
in NomNomNom on October 17, 2011
Ingredients
2 cups spelt flour
¼ cup quinoa flour
¼ cup oat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ cup flax seed meal
½ cup warm water
1 cup Smart Balance
2/3 cup organic dark brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
½ to 1 cup of soy milk
Combine flours and sift. Add in baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Mix and set aside. Add the warm water to the flax seed meal in a small bowl or coffee cup. Stir after 30 seconds, then let sit for 2 or 3 minutes (this is your egg replacement). Warm Smart Balance (I use the microwave) until just starting to melt. Add in the brown sugar and mix (I mix by hand with a large wooden spoon). Add in the vanilla and flax seed meal goop, then mix. Add in the bananas and mix. Add in 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix well. Then add in ¼ to ½ cup of soy milk. Do this until the flour mixture is all added in and the batter is thick but pourable. This depends on how much bananas you used and your flax seed mixture.
Your batter should be thick enough to hold in place for a few seconds when moved with the spoon, but not stay there permanently.
Pour into an oiled loaf pan. Cook at 375 F. 45 to 60 minutes (when a sharp knife comes out clean when stuck in the middle of the loaf). 
Are you helping her or what?
in Social Consciousness on September 12, 2011
We often find ourselves making comments about the people around us. Yet, few people actually tell a person to their face what’s up. Have we become such a self centered, don’t make waves, don’t be the loose nail society that we just don’t care about others anymore?
Absolutely, we don’t want to go around telling people everything we think of them. But when a group of people allow one individual to be so unhappy, so miserable, so stuck in a hole, never saying anything…that is wrong.
In my new family, there is one woman who has the potential to be a very strong person. Yet, everyone around her allows her to be unhappy and manipulative. In her unhappiness, she manipulates those around her with her anger, sadness, and psychological weaknesses. She often uses those who care for her like tools for her own benefit, rarely saying thank you or appreciating what they do. Instead, she will often make a snide comment about what they have done, or point out how it could have helped her better. She rarely takes on the responsibility of her children, calling on others to help her. Yet, she will turn around and use her children like tools in a game with those who care about them.
So, anyone who knows me knows that I am all about women. My politics is feminism. I’m not right or left, I’m feminist. I work to empower women to be the strongest, most capable person they can.
I saw what this woman was doing, and it made me so frustrated to see how everyone around her allowed her to stay unhappy and weak. I refused. At one point, she tried her manipulation on me, and I countered.
I told her that everyone around her allowed her to be unhappy and manipulative. I said that I could help her find the happiness within herself, but that I would not take her BS. I told her that she could be happy, but that she had to decide that. I never used an angry tone, but voiced this out of compassion.
Of course, she hasn’t appreciated yet what I’ve said, but a couple of people she forwarded the information to told me that they were glad that someone stood up and said something to her. I also spent a long time chanting for her true happiness, and I plan on continuing to work to encourage her to become happy.
So my point is, how many of you let women (or others) around you be unhappy because you’re scared to say something or don’t want to make waves? How many of us let people sit in a pit of darkness because we don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings? Are you really helping or keeping them sitting in a life of hell?
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