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Month: February 2022

CUPID MUST BE HIDING SOMEWHERE!


CUPID WENT INTO WITNESS PROTECTION was previously posted in 2019 but I found it an interesting read and decided to repost for this Valentine season. I enjoy reading this popular post each year. I also enjoy sharing Valentine’s Day with my sweetheart/husband as we are still in love and I think we will always be. I wish each one of you Happy Valentine’s Day but if your loved one is not with you for whatever reason, remember Valentines come in all kinds of people. Love is a way to survive, good memories keep our love alive! I am including a poem that I wrote for my sweetie a few years back. I hope you enjoy it!


EARLY HAPPY VALENTINES DAY to all! I thought I would get your attention with the heading. Let’s have some fun in the midst of all of the hoopla of hearts flying, gifts given, love showed and shared with lovers all over the world, but why did Cupid have to go into hiding? I had forgotten the story behind Cupid, have you? Here is the caption on google to jog our memories of how Cupid developedE

Psyche is a princess so beautiful that the goddess Venus becomes jealous. In revenge, she instructs her son Cupid to make her fall in love with a hideous monster; but instead he falls in love with her himself.
10 JULY, 2015 – 03:59 RILEY WINTERS
The ancient fairy tale of Cupid and Psyche, where love endures against all odds
The mythological tale of Cupid and Psyche is one of the few Greek and Roman myths that has not fully become assimilated into modern consciousness. Though adapted somewhat into the better known “Beauty and the Beast”—first written by French author Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont as “La Belle et la Bête”—the correlation to the earlier ancient text is relatively unrecognized. Cupid is often still portrayed as a chubby baby cherub with a fondness for arrows, and Psyche is still predominately unknown outside the psychological community –”psyche” means “soul” in ancient Greek and was subsequently utilized in the literature of psychologists. However, in the ancient world, Cupid and Psyche’s love was well documented and appreciated among the literary scholars. Despite that its original Greek form is now lost, the length of the text remains within Lucius Apuleius’ The Golden Ass , a side anecdote that—in many ways—overshadows the remainder of the novel.

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Once upon a time…
Cupid and Psyche’s narrative begins as most modern fairy tales do: with a kingdom, a daughter with an insurmountable burden over her head, a trial, and a subsequent moral. It is as follows: a king and queen give birth to three daughters, but only the third possesses unearthly beauty. Apuleius’ text claimed that her beauty was so astounding the “poverty of language is unable to express its due praise.” Rumors spread of this girl, Psyche’s, astounding loveliness, eventually reaching the ears of the Roman goddess Venus. Angry that so many mortals were comparing Psyche’s beauty to her own—and in many ways claiming that the mortal surpassed her—Venus calls upon her son Cupid to demand that he use one of his arrows of desire to ensure Psyche fall in love with a human monster.

Obedient as always to his mother, Cupid then descends to the earthly plane to do as she wishes. Yet he was so astonished himself by the mortal princess’ beauty that he mistakenly shot himself. From that moment, Cupid was irrevocably in love with the princess. Around this time, it became evident to her parents that Psyche’s attractiveness had angered the gods, as no mortal man would take her hand in marriage. Imploring the temple of Apollo, they learn that Psyche is destined for a much worse fate than celibacy: “The virgin is destined for the bride of no mortal lover. Her future husband awaits her on the top of the mountain. He is a monster whom neither gods nor men can resist.” Psyche, conscious of the mistakes of her mortal kingdom for praising her so highly, is content to follow the oracle’s advice

From the top of the highest cliff, dressed in funerary garbs, Psyche is swept away by the west wind, Zephyr. She is brought to a striking valley, in the center of which stands a palace so magnificent it could not have been built by any hands other than the gods’. Surrounded by luscious trees with a crystalline fountain at its heart, Psyche soon comes to the conclusion that this golden hall is her new home, further reiterated by the voice of her new husband echoing through the halls. This faceless stranger begins to visit her in the night, every night, to make love to her in the darkness. But despite his nighttime tenderness, Psyche is haunted by the oracle’s claim that he was a monster.h
Psyche’s Wedding (Pre-Raphaelite, 1895) photo by Edward Burne-Jones
Psyche’s Wedding (Pre-Raphaelite, 1895) photo by Edward Burne-Jones ( Wikimedia Commons )

Psyche’s Betrayal
When allowing her two sisters to visit, they are jealous of her beautiful home and insist that Psyche’s husband really is a monster and she owes it to herself to find out. So Psyche is convinced to break her husband’s only request of allowing his face to remain a secret and look upon him in the night. In doing so, she damns their relationship.

A single drop of oil falls from the candle Psyche lights to gaze at his face, waking him, and Cupid, in all his majestic beauty, flees their home, distressed by her betrayal. Distraught, Psyche goes in search of her husband, traveling for many days, until she comes to the temple of Ceres, the motherly goddess of grain.

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The Trials
Ceres instructs Psyche to surrender herself to Venus and take whatever ill will the goddess throws at her. Obeying Ceres’ advice, Psyche is thus given three seemingly impossible tasks to complete. First, the princess has to separate the grains of Venus’ temple’s storehouse into piles of barley, millet, beans, etc. Second, Psyche has to steal golden wool from a herd of sheep; third and finally, Psyche is ordered to travel into the underworld and request from Queen Proserpina a little of her beauty to pass along to the goddess of love. This task, however, demands a further challenge: that Psyche keeps the box in which the beauty is placed tightly closed, for fear of terrible repercussions.

Unknown to Psyche, throughout these trails, Cupid is constantly at her aid. He instructs ants to help her sort the grains; and then the river god offers her instructions of how to steal the prize fleece from the shepherd. Finally, Psyche is given divine advice on how to surpass the dangers of Hades.

Her failure—foretold by Venus herself—comes when Psyche, greatly upset by the trials she had to overcome, opens the box and is overcome by the Stygian sleep, a sleep so strong she is considered the living dead. By that point, Cupid has had enough of his separation from his wife, and he flies to her rescue, lifting her sleeping form to the heavens, and pleading with the great god Jupiter to talk sense into his mother. Venus lifts her terrible curse from the girl, and once Psyche is awake, she is transformed into an immortal, and is properly wed to the young god of desire. (for the full article and photos you can go to: https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-europe/ancient-fairy-tale-cupid-and-psyche-where-love-endures-against-all-odds-003393

Note from blogger: As always, I have a deeper thought about love and life. When we read a myth, may we retrieve some thoughts to use in our lives. Out of the confusion, the betrayals, the trials, we can notice one consistency of Cupid. As the story unfolded, Cupid was constantly at her aid and made the effort to make her life and chores easier. Isn’t that what true love is all about? Also, this story confirms that we do not choose who we fall in love but when Cupid’s arrow is shot in the heart, life as we know it is changed forever. I made a remark about Cupid going into hiding but hopefully he is out and about today shooting love arrows into the hearts of many.

Whether you get chocolate or not, love yourself by pampering your mind and soul with loving thoughts.

(C) Copyright 2012-2022 Arline Miller of Sipping Cups of Inspiration with all rights and privileges reserved. Third party material, including photos, if known is sourced to original location for credit reference.

VALENTINES DAY IS NEAR, DO YOU HAVE SOMEONE DEAR?

Early this morning, I had a thought come through about Valentines Day, Sweethearts, Lonely Hearts, and it came to me to contemplate the full meaning of the heart shaped valentine to represent this holiday of love. I thought it would be interesting to see if the heart is perfect for this special romantic day.

Photo courtesy of Pinterest

Valentine’s Day is once again upon us. In 2006, Keelin McDonell attempted to track down the origin of the holiday’s heart-symbol to explain how it got its familiar shape. Her article is reprinted below and the link to go to original location.

https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/02/valentines-day-heart-shape-symbol-origin-love.html#:~:text=The%20theory%20goes%20that%20the,%2C%20and%20eventually%2C%20with%20love.&text=This%20symbol%20became%20known%20as,windows%20and%20other%20church%20iconography.

It’s Valentine’s Day, and as usual, people are presenting their loved ones with heart-shaped cards, candy, and trinkets. How did the heart shape become the symbol of true love?

Nobody’s quite sure, but it might have to do with a North African plant. During the seventh century B.C., the city-state of Cyrene had a lucrative trade in a rare, now-extinct plant: silphium. Although it was mostly used for seasoning, silphium was reputed to have an off-label use as a form of birth control. The silphium was so important to Cyrene’s economy that coins were minted that depicted the plant’s seedpod, which looks like the heart shape we know today. The theory goes that the heart shape first became associated with sex, and eventually, with love.

timeanddate.com Valentines Day in Canada

What are your feelings on having the heart as the symbol for love? Does your beating heart know love when it occurs? Or is it your eyes that fall in love first? Does your mind convince your heart it should feel love? Can you be sure that your heart is telling you what it feels or is that even possible? I ask these questions before I share a wonderful love story, actually for me, it is the best love story because it’s my personal love story.

It has been over 20 + years at a time in my life that I wasn’t looking for romance with two marriages ending in divorce. I dated casually but usually the first words after dating a couple of times were “If you are looking for a wife, don’t look in my direction.” That sounds cold, right? I would have run if I saw Cupid aiming that arrow so trust me, I meant every word of that statement.

I had a friend who worked with Greg and over about 2-3 months, she was doing her best to convince both of us separately that we should meet. Yada, yada, yada and she wouldn’t stop talking about it. I tried every question to show her that I wasn’t interested and Greg was doing the same on his side. I won’t go into all the details but we gave it our best to push her away with this meet and greet idea.

Finally, after I had tried every excuse in the book, I thought Ah ha, I would stop in their office on my way to my hometown where I had an appointment, meet Greg and either or both of us could say we were not interested. I was so proud of myself for coming up with this idea, but I think Cupid Dee had another idea. Remember, neither one of us had seen a photo and we had never spoken to each other.

I got to the office, sat down in my friend’s office and waited for the quick intro/exit. She came back after going to get Greg to come in and meet me and she had a puzzled look on her face with the words “He left and has gone to the other office.” I laughed internally and thought “Oh this is going to be easier than I thought. He saw me outside and he’s not interested so I don’t have to explain anything.”

I asked Dee to go to lunch so we could catch up and off we went. We laughed, especially me as I felt I had accomplished what I had set out to do. At the end of the lunch, she got a call from Greg who thought I had left without meeting him and he wanted us to know he was back at the office. Hmm, not as easy as I thought but I would be nice and meet him since he called us.

Here’s where the story is going to get a little humorous and Greg and I, after 21 years of being in love and happily married, have an occasional chuckle. The office had a front lobby/office so I sat down on the sofa, Dee plopped herself at the desk, and to the right was the doorway to the other offices, one of which was Greg’s. In a moment, that Cupid Dee must have pulled her arrows out of the quill and shot two at one time, one at Greg and the other one at me. He walked out of that doorway and my heart and his were forever changed. I couldn’t have hand picked a better choice and he felt the same. Good aim, Ms. Dee Cupid. I don’t know how it really happened but this is our love story and remarkably true.

Greg and I married in 2001.

In probably a more realistic down to earth but even more romantic is the notion that God, more than Cupid Dee, had a hand in our love story. Both of us had hurt and disappointment in relationships/marriages and had given up on real love. God knew we were a good match and if we included Him at the center of that love, it would be forever. So I think He gave our friend a nudge to keep poking at us until we gave in. Thank You God and Dee for coordinating that intro and allowing us to have our love story and our life together. We wish all of you a Happy Valentines Day and if you are still looking or as we were not looking, that arrow may make its mark soon.

(C) Copyright 2012-2022 Arline Miller of Sipping Cups of Inspiration and Reinvention Queen with all rights and privileges reserved. Third party material is sourced to original location/author if known for credit reference.

Maybe I am just a romantic at heart, but my novels reflect the love found in the unexpected places filled with suspense and so many secrets. Find all three on Amazon.com by searching Arline Miller, author.

STAKING MY REPUTATION ON AIR FRIED GRILLED STEAK

I have promised my readers/followers that as I test out different dishes/meals in my Power XL Air Fryer Grill Oven 7 n 1 appliance, I would update you on the good and the bad (if any) results and I am excited to tell you that one of my concerns was grilling a steak. It is so pricey these days to purchase beef of any kind but steaks are so costly, that a chance of failure was highly stressful.

Here is how I prepared steaks for us yesterday with the most favorable results, better than I could have imagined, and even my grill master husband Greg said they were excellent and so tender.

We started with good steaks and seasoned with my husband’s blend of salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Before we placed them in our Power XL 7 n 1 Air Fryer Grill Oven, we used the tenderizer which works wonders. Then after they had time to mellow, we placed them on the grill pan in the bottom slot. I splashed a few small dashes of Liquid Smoke to add that outdoor taste. I set it on 400 degrees, Grill feature, time was set past 20 minutes (oh yes, I preheated for 5 minutes prior to inserting steaks.)

The next thing was I had made garlic butter by processing room temperature butter, 2 heaping teaspoons of minced garlic and a dash of onion salt. I added 2 tsps of dried parsley. This was awesome and I smeared some on the steaks after they began grilling. We also used a pat of this garlic butter on top of the grilled steaks. Yummy!

I don’t know about you but these are perfectly medium rare steaks. The first time was 5 minutes on Grill, Flipped them and set timer for 3 minutes, changed the setting to Broil for 3 minutes, and wallah, perfect steaks without cranking up the grill and dealing with rainy cold weather.

We let the steaks rest for about 5 minutes and then plated with some macaroni salad as well as a small green salad. Easy breezy. No condiments needed and we discovered a great way to use our Power XL Oven. BTW, next time I grill pork chops, I will follow the same procedure.

Here is our grilled steak and I hope you will try this method as the clean up was as easy breezy as the grilling. Grill marks on a tender delicious steak. Don’t forget the Liquid Smoke and the Garlic Butter. The knife glided through the steak and that is all I needed to see.

Please remember you can do the sides in the Air Fryer as well like a perfect baked potato or fries. Veggies can be air fried/grilled easily too. I have a lot of recipes on my Pinterest board for your viewing and pinning.

I hope you will try many recipes and feel free to let me know how they turn out. I want to try the Bang Bang Salmon soon….Until We Power Up Again….Happy Meals to You…..Arline Miller, Reinvention Queen

(C) Copyright 2012-2022 Arline Miller of Sipping Cups of Inspiration and Reinvention Queen with all rights and privileges reserved. Third party material is sourced, if known, to original location/author for credit reference.

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