Angela Marie Morton: art & illustration

I came up with this cozy, simple soup when my husband needed to switch up his diet due to health issues. It is now on regular rotation in our kitchen, and has been helping to get us through the cold Pacific Northwest winter. Feel free to use it as a template, and switch out ingredients to suit your needs, or to use up what you have on hand, or follow it to the letter and make it just like I do. It will be yummy either way! Cozy Vegetable Barley Soup Ingredients 2-4 russet potatoes, depending on the size 1-2 handfuls of baby carrots or frozen carrots, or 2 regular carrots ¼ cup dried red beans, or ½ a can of cooked (I always use dried beans, as they are more cost effective than canned) ¼ cup barley ¼ - ½ cup frozen corn ¼ - ½ cup frozen kale ¼ - ½ cup frozen peas 2-4 cups water, depending on how thick you want your soup  Spices (all optional) I typically season to taste. I recommend starting with a ¼ teaspoon of each, adding more if needed. Garlic salt Nutritional yeast Onion powde...

Mount Angel Abbey, Oregon Photo by Angela Marie Morton My husband and I were talking recently about coping with difficult life changes, and how challenging it can be to navigate, process, and come through them. The biggest, most stressful, and most impactful event in both our lives, by far, has been the pandemic. Although we are extremely compatible as life partners, my husband and I have very different personalities and ways of handling stress and of expressing ourselves. He mentioned that he has been impressed (and a bit envious) by my seeming ability to have been able to adapt, and to rebuild and create a meaningful existence, after losing so much of my previous life, and our life as a couple. He attributes it, at least in part, to my ongoing practice of cultivating an active interior life.  “Interior life” is a term that I have frequently seen referenced in my readings of different religions and philosophies, but it is only in the past few years that I have finally begun to app...