Category Archives: Imagination

The Magic Number…

…is enough.

Any other number that we believe is the bridge between us and our joy, peace, and contentment is simply not true.

You can’t weigh enough.

You can’t count enough.

You can’t measure enough.

You can only hold it…be with it…and enjoy it. It’s simply experiential and it’s the most freeing number your soul will ever know.

PS // What if we taught our children how to count to enough? My sense is that by learning how to behold the ‘enough’ in their little lives they would also internally find a way to see this big beautiful truth in the mirror as well.

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A Conversation with Mike Bagale / Alinea / Executive Chef / Chicago, IL

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Mike Bagale combines a unique mix of a broadly artistic mind with a calm, pragmatic, and practical approach to running a complex kitchen.

Mike’s artistic interests began in film school, attending Ryerson University in Toronto and the New York Film Academy. In 2002 his interest in cooking began when he enrolled at Florida Culinary in Palm Beach.

In 2004 he began working at the Four Seasons hotels and spent 4 years in their programs from Palm Beach, Washington D.C., and Miami, ending up as the Chef de Cuisine of the 5 Diamond Resort at the Palm Beach property. In 2009, after a successful 2-day tryout, he joined the team at Alinea as chef de partie.

His relentless drive and work ethic moved him quickly up the ladder at Alinea. He was a constant creative collaborator in the kitchen and was promoted to sous chef quickly in 2010. It was that year that he cracked the code to ‘floating food’ with the famous Balloon course. Mike was named Executive Chef of Alinea in 2012.

Follow Mike on Instagram and learn more about Alinea here.

You stream or download this conversation at AshtonGustafson.comiTunes, and Stitcher.

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In and Out

We see out of the posture we’ve settled our hearts into..

&

…we live out of the places we’ve directed our thoughts into.

What goes in will come out.

We know who frequents McDonald’s.

We can tell who consistently eats their veggies.

The same goes for our hearts, eyes, and minds.

So if it’s all going to hell in a handbasket (as you see it), I invite you to examine the consciousness in which you have gathered items for you very own handbasket.

Remember, what goes in will come out.

If your very own handbasket is full of labels, critique, coveting, comparison, scarcity, measurement, and competition then, yes, you may be blinded to all of the good and beautiful things that life is ushering into existence for you. I would call such blindness hell too.

Now….What would it take for you to develop a consciousness that could see, embrace, know, and enjoy the potentiality of heaven at your fingertips?

How would your life experience shift if you filled your handbaskets with a loving spirit, gentle eyes, a kind heart, a controlled tongue, a mind that kept no record of wrongs, and hands that were pursuing peace?

These are questions worth sitting with.

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