A guest speaker at a friend's house

A guest speaker at a friend's house scheduled for 7pm. Prasadam first at 6:15.
I wanted to make cookies. They came out great. I used yucca flour and added apricot preserves to a decent oatmeal cookie recipe.

I invited a friend and initially I wanted to chant two rounds with my friend before going to the meeting but the cookies needed to come out of the oven and I definitely wanted to make a garland for the speaker. But time was running out.
After the hard freeze a few days ago there were no flowers anywhere. But a few volunteer trees and bushes had some nice leaves. One tree that grows wild here has leaves with a delicious fragrance. Like pine but not exactly. And there are some bushes on the other side of the fence in the wooded area with red berries. I checked with Google so see if they were poisonous since I found it unusual that the creatures hadn't eaten them. But evidently they are not poisonous but still not something to be harvested either.

So here he was. Ready to chant japa (Hare Krishna mantra on beads) and I was running around with cookies and trying to string a forest garland. He jumped right in offered the cookies to Prabhupada, transferred the cookies to a serving tray, and washed the cookie sheets. Then he read to me from Prabhupada lila while I hurriedly strung the garland.

We arrived a few minutes late but they were only just serving the prasadam to about 12 guests and the speaker wasn't going to start for another half hour.

The cookies were a smash hit. And the devotees going to Gainesville tomorrow night for the speaking engagement there to all new people from the university want to take them for the speaker to hand out after the class. Woo hooo. Super smash hit.

My friend placed the garland around his neck since the speaker is in the renounced order and me being a woman it was not a good idea for me to do that. He wore it during the class and super discussion, especially the part about what is meant by submission. That got tossed around for quite awhile. Finally landing on malleability, allowing oneself to be manipulated. It is going to happen anyway, either Maya and the three modes will do it or Hare Krishna and the spiritual master. Take your pick.

After the discussion, he gave the garland to one of the men who wore if for a few minutes and who then gave it to his young wife who is expecting a baby in April. She wore it on her head like a crown and looked incredibly beautiful.
So I would say it was a good evening. Hare Krishna.

My friend is coming back tonight and we will chant the two rounds together.

https://www.allrecipes.com/.../19247/soft-oatmeal-cookies/
(No egg... almond milk instead) add raisins, chopped walnuts, use half chapati flour and half yucca flour if you have it. I three in some apricot preserves just for fun)