Family photo from 2022 with Matteo in the Middle
Matteo Stuffy #1
Matteo Stuffy #2
Matteo Mancuso

A food memoir of weight loss, family recipes, digital cookbook and nutrition information for family and friends
I write a phrase, then wait for what follows. Then hold still as nothing more comes. Then I delete the first words and fall back into silence.
Maybe all that has been written before is enough. Maybe it’s time to say less—time to hide quietly beyond words and positions and insights. Maybe it’s time to allow what has come before to be what has already happened.
Maybe it’s time to stop. Maybe just this morning or maybe tomorrow too. Maybe only occasionally. Maybe not at all for a long while.
We’ll see.
Blog post by David Rynick May 11, 2021 – https://davidrynick.com/blog/
I feel the same way today.
Sat 09.21.24
While I am not quite sure what I plan to do in my “retirement years” I am convinced my work on this planet is not yet done. So I continue to read, steal time here and there to write and wait patiently for a sign.
“All you have to do is pay attention; lessons always arrive when you are ready, and if you can read the signs, you will learn everything you need to know in order to take the next step.” from THE ZAHIR
Read the signs: this is an individual language joined to intuition that appears at the right moments. Even if the signs point in the opposite direction from what you planned, follow them. Sometimes you can go wrong, but this is the best way to learn this new language.
Warrior of the Light, a http://www.paulocoelho.com.br publication — Paulo Coelho

Mimi and Papa by Madelyn. I’m the one on the right.
The spirit of the writer is different than the spirits of other artists. Writers are quirkier. Not as quirky as some painters or the guy who builds things out of toothpicks but quirky nonetheless. These artists qualify as top of the heap quirky. All I want to do is write. Is this too quirky?
I haven’t thought about or read much from Paulo Coelho recently. There was a time in my life when the signs were everywhere. Then they stopped. Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention. Maybe they just stopped. Well, much to my surprise when I wasn’t looking for a sign one just shows up. I stumbled upon the article on Dr. Hinohara and at the top of the list of his longevity tips was…
DON’T RETIRE
I just finished reading The Writing Life by Annie Dillard and I realize my writing will never achieve the level of the great ones. From this short book on writing you can tell Dillard is pretty quirky. Maybe I’m not quirky enough to have chosen the writing life. But I am OK with my underdeveloped talents as I was OK with deciding not to pursue writing for a living. Too hard, too demanding, too much time spent writing words into the void where no one reads what you’ve written. Maybe if I took this writing thing seriously I would have gotten a lot better. Maybe if I had become a better writer the angels above would have tossed down a bit of luck. Maybe it’s not too late to start writing better. It’s always easier to work tirelessly on your art when you don’t depend upon it to put a roof over your head, food on the table, clothes on your back. I have always had a day job.
I still have a day job. I still write nearly every day, personal journal, online journal, blogs, grocery lists on scraps of paper. And it doesn’t matter if anyone reads my writing or not. I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing, waiting for the next sign.
The Artist is on the left. I’m the one on the right. I’m the writer.
The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) defines pica as eating non-nutritive, non-food substances over a period of at least one month. Additionally, the behavior must not be in keeping with the child’s developmental stage and must not be socially normative or culturally acceptable behavior. The nature of ingested items is variable, including but not limited to earth (geophagy), raw starches (amylophagy), ice (pagophagia), charcoal, ash, paper, chalk, cloth, baby powder, coffee grounds, and eggshells. This activity describes the risk factors, evaluation, and management of pica and highlights the role of the interprofessional team in enhancing care delivery for affected patients. Pica –https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532242/
Yeah, I know. This is supposed to be a food blog. So why post information on pica?
The latest and strangest TikTok trend: eating dirt to reduce wrinkles – https://www.fastcompany.com/91194983/tiktok-trend-eating-dirt-to-reduce-wrinkles
Why does a social media site normalize eating disorders? Oh right, to reduce wrinkles in children! ATTENTION PARENTS – New Wrinkle Worry
OMG GET HELP. https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/get-help/
Time to take the phone away. Seriously.




Enjoying the weekend with the Tiny Tornadoes.
Teaching myself how to write blog posts on a pad with my arthritic thumbs.
Tommy Lundberg, an exercise researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Solna, Sweden, and the author of The Physiology of Resistance Training, says that strength training is far more important than most people realize.
“You get improved glucose control, especially if you have Type 2 diabetes,” he says. “You feel better —which is a very important effect, as it can reduce stress levels — and you typically get better sleep. As you age, it helps you function better so you can carry out your daily activities for a longer period of time. It also helps reduce your risk of falls.” https://www.newsmax.com/health/health-news/strength-training-resistance-longevity/2024/01/24/id/1150856/
“We’re not born with unlimited choices. We can’t be anything we want to be. We come into this world with a specific, individual destiny. We have a job to do, a calling to enact, a self to become. We are who we are from the cradle, and we’re stuck with it. Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.”
Steven Pressfield