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Ginger Carrot Bisque

Ginger Carrot Bisque

This soup is perfect for the coming Fall weather. Make it Vegan by using olive oil, soy creamer and Veggie stock.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

1/4 C (plus 2 TB) Unsalted Butter

2 LB Carrots Peeled and Thinly Sliced

2 Large Onions Chopped

1 TB Minced, Peeled Fresh Ginger

2 TS Grated Orange Peel

1/2 TS Ground Coriander

5 C Chicken Stock

1 C Half and Half

1/2 C Fresh Minced parsley

preparation

Melt butter over medium heat in a heavy large sauce pan.

Add carrots and onions

Cover and cook until softened (about 15 minutes)

Add ginger, orange peel and coriander and 2 C stock

Reduce heat to med-low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes until carrots are very tender

Puree soup in small batches in food processor or blender

Return to pot and add remaining stock and half and half

Add salt and pepper to taste and simmer for 15 minutes

Garnish with parsley

 

 

Recipe courtesy of Kevin W Hogan 

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Yes, It Is The Magic Word

Tuesday finds me up a little early and ready for the day, seeking the promise of abundance in the deep purple that floats above the dim glow of shopping centers and traffic lights. It says offer no resistance to life, let things happen, embrace change and surrender.

This brings a state of grace, of ease, of lightness.

One thing I have found since realizing my destiny was to be exceptional is that when you base your happiness on your expectations you are never happy, when you do the opposite, when you are no longer dependant on things being a certain way, whether good or bad, you are no longer a slave to an idea of happiness. How to do this is the challenge so we must ask ourselves what is the best way to let go, to not expect certain things, either from life, from my kids or from the other adults in my life.

(An example would be expecting Amanda to let Cerise go to Karate on a day she has visitation. I should ask and not expect her to say yes, I should let the answer be what it is and not cause myself the frustration and anger of her standard response when I ask her to let the girls do something “It’s my time, why do you have to schedule things when I have them”.)

Happiness does not come from outside, it is within, like Jesus (or someone in the Bible said) the kingdom of heaven is within. I think most people miss this; they think that Jesus will bring them happiness, but what He said was that if you followed him, followed his example, then you would find happiness within yourself, calm, as he had.

Once we have done this then we can learn to dance in the flow, to whirl and twirl to the rhythm of life and not fight against the current that swells and ebbs in each moment we share.

It is not the world that causes our disappointments, it is our inner demons, critics or parents that like to tell us, “that’s nice, but…” Buts are for pooping, they are full of crap.

This is all done on, manifested on, a conscious level and permeates to our subconscious.

I am focusing on the fullness in my life, the abundance that will ever expand and help me to fulfill my purpose and learning to affirm that ;

I have plenty of time to do the things I want

I am creating total success in an easy and relaxed manner

I am relaxed and enjoy fulfilling my purpose.

To affirm is to remember my dreams and let their meaning be clear.

You have two options in life A) focus on your strengths or B) focus on your shortcomings. Failure is just a sign that you need to readjust and refocus your plan, not an end to the ability to achieve our goals.

Ask yourself what is the problem and answer it in the right way, by saying “am I doing everything I can to deconstruct and solve this problem” “What are the parts, what is the essence, what is the fundamental core that the rest of this situation stems from?”

Fix that and the rest will fall into place.

I am sensible and in control of my life and finances.

I am creating total financial success in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, in its own perfect time and for the highest good of all.

To stand back, separate yourself from a problem, from your ‘self’, is a great way to gain the perspective that helps you to live a life that is free from outside expectations dictating your happiness.

Know your doubts and fear so you can affirm their opposite, the positive, the good, the half-full. It is alright, we are only limited by our beliefs and the critic inside of our dreams.

Our beliefs, right or wrong, good or bad, are not true until we make them true by affirming them, change what you affirm consciously and unconsciously and you will change the course of your beliefs and dreams.

Can you answer these questions:

“What is my purpose?”  This is hard, you may need to meditate on it, to mull it over, but the answer will guide everything you do and bring focus.

Next ask “What is a deeply satisfying life?”

Answer that and then all that is left is to design it, the blueprint to true success is within us.

Then finally ask “What life do I dream of having?” This is an extension of what is a satisfying life and will give you the tools to set goals which in turn make the blueprint.

You will get where you are going even if you don’t know where it is, but wouldn’t it be easier if you knew where you were going, to find the path of least resistance to your destination (destiny). The difference between destiny and fate is this plan.

The hardest thing I have found is fighting that voice that says “You can’t” (I don’t even like writing that) and it is best done, by me, in a calm way, by remembering that it is testing my faith in myself, that the voice of doubt creates a path of resistance and it is the path of least resistance that is the road I walk.

In Bucklands Complete Book Of Witchcraft there is a phrase “So Mote It Be”, that you say when casting a spell, I see that casting a spell is not the thing of movies, but rather a setting of your inner self on the right path, the path of least resistance and affirming it. You create the life you want by visualizing it, dreaming it, and affirming it. The rest begins to take care of itself because your are no longer fighting the world around you, but rather embracing it and becoming one with the truth of your dreams.

There is a great book I suggest you find and read called The Bhagavad Gita, it “is a 700-verse scripture that is part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. This scripture contains a conversation between Pandava prince Arjuna and his guide Lord Krishna on a variety of theological and philosophical issues.” Reading it opened up parts of my mind that helped me see within every adversity is an equal or greater benefit and that problems are simply speed bumps that slow me down for a good reason; that within every problem is a oppotunity, a great gift.

See yourself as the person you want to be, where you belong and doing what you want to fulfill the purpose in life you have been shown.

Success only happens when you see it and place yourself in it, imagine it and allow it to manifest itself, it is the ability to learn new things and be challenged. Remember that luck is preparedness meeting opportunity. When we prepare, opportunities present themselves.

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Tuesday In Four Parts

I
Then what again is a poem;
somethiong carved
out of soul,
shaken from a swelled head, bursting
onto the page
in ink,
in blood.

I spoon fed her ice-
cream as we rode
across a terrain of hours;
past shuttered windows
that had no need to stay warm
or starving for answers,
too short words and backwards letters.
a silent road across forever
that could feel the eyes upon us:

they warned me of poison
headaches I can't kill to be lifted.
It doesn't need to be more
then love when you're with me
and you're leaving.

II
My skin will become dark if I let it
play in ink and newspaper. So join
the golf team or chess club
and feel the strain. Do
the rub. They say we grind now:
Think I better. Move to another.

These walls and floors are sterile
(I think he thought I might
not tell him) with blue speakers
in  the cornors and screens
in the windows. Just don't look
in, you'll be fine. Let this
be an answer when you ask
---I am the dancer behind your mask.

These halls are empty and tired,
worn with the help of morning
and the words that can't
stop moving like the four winds
holding Timet.  She has fallen
(come in, I'll show you).
We can hide in the cracks,
retreat back into the black.

III
I dream of winning the lottery,
1.6 million for twenty years,
and on my headstone "it's what killed him."

I don't live at home anymore, so far
the distance we must go, lost in autumn
where my father recoils to the crone's
breast and sleep. My doors close
as softly at forty-two, slightly cracked
to let a current into this still night
that again will return to dawn;
if we could only be that strong, in the cracks
of dark where we dwell. So much lost
youth clouded wisdom trying to control her.
Written in her bible, her stories, along
the coast and beyond the highland
on a backroad, trains skirt
along the distant plains, always
as far from home.

I dwell south of the sun,
where dawn hides, a garden blooming
in winter. She gave me silent rest
that is lost in the glare
of the harvest moon.

I dance down her path, I dream 
of the lover who shown
brightly past the dawn, wondering why.

IV
I'm hard as nails, the same
as before, fighting the same
ghosts that cry overhead:

How much is just surviving, not
satisfying the dry throat;
come and drink, tired one,
the silence so deep.

Maybe I want to
know how to stop
the tears and let the music play
away yesterday.

Secrets,
Sinking,
Nothing;
not a word for days.
Words get to stretch themselves out
and she doesn't speak anymore.

Tell me something
never heard before, on
and off; sitting
like a painting
posed too real, bruning
books, destroying
Words:
Instant satisfaction,
a prime reaction, but no

Love. Won't you say
"Well never walk alone",
a cold voice
on the telephone
I can't trust to pull me through.

Maybe you should
tell me lies
'I'll always be by your side
and up your ass'. Now I just don't

know, going back
into the past.

This House

This house was built in the 1950’s.  The street it is on was here long before the developement that rose behind it and the strip malls and gas stations that turned the highway from a lonely two lane road into a major thoroughfare.  The inside is newer then the out, but if you look closely in the corners and in the cracks along the baseboards you can see the ghosts of what was. No moviestar would have ever walked these floors, they were built for a workingman and his wife. 

At some point we gave up on farmland, paved the fields and built communities, cookie cutter houses almost stacked on top of one another. Many people came rushing in, good people looking for an escape from Baltimore and it’s surrounding neighborhoods, good people looking to let their kids grow up in a world that had slowly faded on. The rolling pastures, old oak trees, quite streams and animals hidden beneath were gone; that is the irony, the idyllic landscape they came to find had to be destroyed so they could build a home. 

If you listen you can hear voices on the wind, they speak of angels and farmers, retelling the stories their parents but whispered by candlelight behind the barn. Or inside a kitchen thats life flowed and filled the cold of bedrooms where they struggled to find sleep.  Life was hard, that gets lost in the image the pilgrims imagined, and the land was only willing to provide by sweat and tears. 

I came here for the same reasons as most but decided to stake my claim in what was old.  It was not to turn back time but rather to respect the desire to build something that lasts. Progress has given us a nice place to live and covered up the truth of the past.  In this house I find some semblence of a past I never lived, one my grandparents aspired to but is a foreign and fancied. 

Homes For Sale in Sykesville’s Edgewood Neighborhood

Homes for Sale in Sykesville’s Edgewood Neighborhood

Edgewood is a neighborhood with Homes for Sale in Sykesville and Homes for Sale in Eldersburg area of Carroll County MD. that has mid-level single family homes. It is the perfect neighborhood for an expanding family or if you just need more space. The schools are consistently ranked high and there is shopping close by. The neighborhood is close to both Baltimore and DC, with quick access to Rt 70, 695 and 95 via Liberty Rd or Rt 32. Call Kevin W Hogan for a showing at 410 917 6116

 

Edgewood

904 Derby Drive Eldersburg, MD21784

$454,9004 beds, 2.5 baths 2671 sq. ft.mls no. CR8069840

You can View this Property, Get More Information or Schedule a Visit

Edgewood

781 Sussex Court Eldersburg, MD21784

$509,0004 beds, 3.5 baths 3859 sq. ft. mls no. CR8076483

You can View this Property, Get More Information or Schedule a Visit

Kevin W Hogan– Realtor –  Member of The Paul Gillespie Team of Exit Preferred Realty – Through a combination of advanced search technologies and old fashioned personalized service, he affords his clients with the highest level of service and is there for each step of the sale or purchase of your home. Specializing in communities in and around the Carroll County area such as Eldersburg, Sykesville, Mt. Airy, Woodbine and Hampstead.

 

Acorn Village – Mid-Level Homes in Sykesville, MD

Acorn Village – Mid-Level Homes in Sykesville, MD.

Acorn Village is a neighborhood in the Sykesville / Eldersburg are of Carroll County MD. It is one of the many Homes For Sale in Sykesville. Homes for sale in Acorn Village are great mid-level homes, with schools that are consistently ranked high. Set back against the scenery of the  Liberty Resivior, the neighborhood is close to both Baltimore and DC, with quick access to Rt 70, 695 and 95 via Liberty Rd or Rt 32. Call Kevin W Hogan for a showing at 410 917 6116

city:Sykesville;  subdivision:Acorn Village;  property type:Single Family Home, Condo/Townhouse

View Details29 photos

$359,9004 beds, 2.5 baths2455 sq. ft.mls no. CR8061775

Single Family HomeSet back off the road is this 4BR 2.5 bath Rancher w/eat-in kit/DR combo, spacious…Courtesy of Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc.

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View Details29 photosNEW

$396,9005 beds, 3 baths3146 sq. ft.mls no. CR7996107

Single Family HomeUNBELIELABLE PRICE FOR THIS FANTASTIC CENTER HALL COL W/4 BR'S UP & 1 DOWN, 2 FULL…Courtesy of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage

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View Details30 photosNEW

$447,9004 beds, 2.5 bathsmls no. CR8082764

Single Family HomeStunning home in a quiet neighborhood. Spacious ML LR/DR, Sunroom & upgraded KIT…Courtesy of Long & Foster Real Estate Inc.

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Some of the streets in Acorn Village are Snowdens Run RD, Mineral Hill RD, Forest CT, Hanna RD, Forest LN, Monroe AVE, Red River RD and is accessed off Oklahoma RD.

Kevin Hogan – Realtor –  Member of The Paul Gillespie Team of Exit Preferred Realty – Through a combination of advanced search technologies and old fashioned personalized service, he affords his clients with the highest level of service and is there for each step of the sale or purchase of your home. Specializing in communities in and around the Carroll County area such as Eldersburg, Syesville, Mt. Airy, Woodbine and Hampstead.
Call Kevin W Hogan at 410-917-6116, and "I will take you home."

Blog Tag: Kevin W Hogan Carroll County MD, Kevin Hogan Real Estate, Kevin W Hogan Buy Real Estate, Kevin W Hogan Sykesville, Kevin W Hogan Acorn Village

Piney Ridge Village offers the perfect starter homes for first time buyers. Tons of room, great neighbors and top notch schools are just a few of the reasons you should look into this up and coming area of Carroll County. 
 
 
22 photos

$239,9003 beds, 2 bathsmls no. CR8051926

Condo/TownhouseFRESHLY PAINTED, CARPETED, LAMINATE FLOORING AND ALL NEW STAINLESS KITCHEN…Courtesy of Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc.

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View Details25 photosNEW

$239,9003 beds, 1.5 bathsmls no. CR8074600

Condo/TownhouseYou have to see this end of group townhome in Piney Ridge Village on a premiere…Courtesy of Champion Realty, Inc.

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View Details10 photos

$277,0003 beds, 2.5 bathsmls no. CR8059762

Condo/Townhouse!!THIS BETTER THAN NEW, BRIGHT, SUNNY HOME WAITS FOR YOU! GOURMET KIT W/ SS…Courtesy of RE/MAX 100

 

 

Kevin Hogan – Realtor –  Member of The Paul Gillespie Team of Exit Preferred Realty – Through a combination of advanced search technologies and old fashioned personalized service, he affords his clients with the highest level of service and is there for each step of the sale or purchase of your home. Specializing in communities in and around the Carroll County area such as Eldersburg, Syesville, Mt. Airy, Woodbine and Hampstead.

Call Kevin W Hogan at 410-917-6116, and "I will take you home."

 

 

Derby Farms is one of the Sykesville / Eldersburg areas most desired locations, set against the quiet scenery of Liberty Resivoir and just a short drive to the Baltimore Metropolitan area. These New Construction homes have all the amenities you expect when looking for a luxurary home.

View Details1 photoNEW

$569,9904 beds, 2.5 baths2320 sq. ft.mls no. CR7722535

Single Family HomeFeaturing 3 plus acre homesites that back up to Liberty Reservoir, Derby Farms has…Courtesy of RE/MAX Advantage Realty

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View Details1 photoNEW

$614,9904 beds, 3.5 baths2450 sq. ft.mls no. CR7893975

Single Family HomeWooded 3 acre homesite tucked away in beautiful Eldersburg. 1 of 10 sites. Great…Courtesy of RE/MAX Advantage Realty

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View Details1 photoNEW

$629,9904 beds, 2.5 baths2890 sq. ft.mls no. CR7892698

Single Family HomeFeaturing 3 plus acre homesites that back up to Liberty Reservoir, Derby Farms has…Courtesy of RE/MAX Advantage Realty

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View Details1 photoNEW

$674,9904 beds, 3.5 baths3377 sq. ft.mls no. CR7892697

Single Family HomeFeaturing 3 plus acre homesites that back up to Liberty Reservoir, Derby Farms has…Courtesy of RE/MAX Advantage Realty

Locate on map

View Details2 photosNEW

$710,0004 beds, 2.5 baths2890 sq. ft.mls no. CR7964673

Single Family HomeFeaturing 3 plus acre homesites that back up to Liberty Reservoir, Derby Farms has…Courtesy of RE/MAX Advantage Realty

Kevin Hogan – Realtor –  Member of The Paul Gillespie Team of Exit Preferred Realty – Through a combination of advanced search technologies and old fashioned personalized service, he affords his clients with the highest level of service and is there for each step of the sale or purchase of your home. Specializing in communities in and around the Carroll County area such as Eldersburg, Syesville, Mt. Airy, Woodbine and Hampstead.
"Call Kevin W Hogan, and I will take you home." Call me at 410-917-6116.

 

 

Inertia Satori

Inertia – “a property of matter by which it remains at rest or in uniform motion in the same straight line unless acted upon by some external force”

Satori – “sudden enlightenment and a state of consciousness attained by intuitive illumination representing the spiritual goal of Zen Buddhism”. 

The idea of combining the two came to me one day sixteen years ago when I was sitting, thinking, in my mother’s basement about motivation, and specifically why I wasn’t motivated to find a job. As I thought about it I realized I was motivated, but only motivated to sit in my mother’s basement and play video games. There was a lot of talk from the people upstairs (my parents) that I had to try harder, that I could do better. The truth was I was doing the best I could at that time, if I could do better I would, if I had the internal motivation to try harder I would.

I found I had to differentiate between internal and external motivation and realize that only internal motivation will enlighten me and this internal motivation is usually spurned by some outside action or occurrence. This action, this external force, shouldn’t be confused with some form of external motivation; I could be told to go back to school and get my BA a thousand times but I was fine with doing nothing, waiting to go follow a band around. It was only when Jerry Garcia died, the outside occurrence, that my uniform motion, or lack of, changed. The new path it sent me on was to go back to school and do more with my life. The action of Garcia dying caused sudden enlightenment on my part and I became internally motivated to move on from my mother’s basement and enter the next chapter of my life; I hit a wall and it woke me, got me up and out the door.

I began to think of other times in my life that something happened and sent me in a new direction, that there were outside occurrences happening all around me that had brought me to any given moment in my life and that the internal motivation to make the changes, to take the paths I took, were manifested by the, conscious or unconscious, “intuitive illumination” of these forces that acted upon me. It gave me some comfort that their was a rhyme and a reason to everything that had happened to me and that I could survive in the stoicism that says “there is a reason for it all”.

Month 9

Believe it, hip sucks; you play a mean tune and they call in the vultures who are crazy about alleviation.

I came of age in the eighties, under the blinders of the Reagan era, struggling to be “capable of being in uncertainties” as Keats said some one hundred and fifty years before I was born.

It is now the ninth month and the return of the deluge, where something in passing becomes holy writ; one note that is held, waiting for resolution, the other reason to write a poem.

I was never much of a dancer, don’t get me wrong, I’d cut a rug anytime, anywhere, if the music played itself, bouncing from ceiling to floor, yet tonight my feet moved in rhythm and precision. Maybe it is the same, when limbs flail or you know the bossa nova, maybe pain is love in retrograde (yeah, I like that).

It’s been a long hard road;
this is the poem where I finally give thanks,
this is seven years justified,
this is the beginning of what will only be described as incredible, without regret we missed anything, and being there in each moment, even beholding that dark side that doesn’t want me back.

Let’s ride the downbeat off in the distance, wild running toward the horizon outside Ocampo, Mexico, where Texas is a dream. I love the image of a car riding across the desert, validated by the veracity of passing from nowhere to further and you know where your going (don’t think about it that much, that much is what I ran from, to my fantasy of a city called refuge, one built on cocaine and alcohol, and sex, and the stains that where burned onto so many sheets that revealed what only a blank page can).

It’s like that old song, two worlds colliding, but whether we stand or sit or lie down and fuck good for an hour before reality sets in and you hit the road or just get lost and find sunshine around every bend; could anything be more holy or pure, finally becoming the man and woman we have always hidden from?

I love your vagina, truly the mound of Venus, it mystify me, telling me the story that brings your heart to the surface as it finds a new way to survive.  This was so much easier when I had a typewriter, primitive these days, maybe, truly functional for writing poetry, absolutely.  It is sticking your hand in and singing ‘bring on the night’, now, because it rushes to the dawn.

So I’m sitting here at my wooden desk writing you some lines instead of doing them (I hope we can still be friends).  I write it
because you made the stars align and I am proud that you would choose me, a planet on the far side, vast, wanting to come back and never more able. Let’s sail this world and make a poem home for the fleeting seconds when we can be each other, ego dead and there to catch each other, especially because we made each other fall (gravity is a bitch) into the rest of our lives.

I write this not to propagate some lust for life or thirst for some imagined need.  We need food, we want each other. I write this to assign meaning and place myself in time, I want to touch the earth, drink in the mighty river down in a valley that is calling us between the vast sands we trudged in another world, now it’s not hard to be ourself because there is nothing wrong.

I write this to welcome the sun,
I write this to tell you ‘yes’,
but mostly I write this because I wish you were here,
it was that cold last night.