5/31/2014 0 Comments EnjoyPhoto courtesy of quotesvalley.com
This post is about making the most of your situation. In my case, I had to make the most of being home all day since my car has been at the body shop for a little while. As someone whose Saturdays are usually spent with friends and/or exploring new parts of the city, it was challenging at first to face the fact that I couldn't drive anywhere. Especially given that the weather has pretty much been perfect for outdoors-y-ness (70 degrees, clear, sunny and warm), it was extra challenging. But, the following quote by Theodore Roosevelt entered my mind: "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." This motivated me to come up with ways to make my day a good one despite that I couldn't drive to Golden Gardens Park (where in my opinion the best beach in Seattle exists) or grab iced lattes with my best friend. I knew that if I spent the entire time in front of the TV feeling as if there were nothing else to do in the house, I would feel crummy at the end of the day. So, I started out my morning by going for a jog at the nearby park (for reasons mentioned in a previous Life au Cochon post, titled "Sanity"). I had gotten used to being at the park in the evening, so it was refreshing to get a taste of the morning spring air and see the dew on the leaves. Following the jog were activities I had either wanted to do for awhile, or had taken for granted and hadn't done for awhile. These things included writing, reading out on the balcony in my backyard, and spending quality time with my little brother. It was especially exciting to read on the balcony, because it took me back to the summers during high school where I'd spend every day reading or tanning under the Sun. It was especially fun to joke and laugh with my brother, because it reminded me how I don't need to spend every single Saturday outside the house. I guess this goes to show that sometimes you may not know how your day will end; but, that just means there's a higher chance of you discovering or rediscovering things about yourself and the world around you. ~~MC
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Photo above courtesy of Café Besalu.
NOTE: It may have made more sense to post this in the Foods for Fantasizing section, but I decided to put it in Life au Cochon because of what the main focus of the material is. Sometimes, it’s nice to get away from the daily life and immerse oneself in a fresh, new environment…or at least an environment where you know you can fully relax and almost feel like you’re on an overseas trip. For me, one of those places is Café Besalu (note that I said ‘one of those places’ instead of ‘the one place’…This goes to show how much I love variety in escapement). I have only been to this refuge four times, but I somehow already convinced myself that it is one of my ‘second homes.’ There is something remarkable about the bustling noises I hear as I sip my latte and eat (more like inhale) my pain au chocolat—the lively chatter between couples and friends, the constant opening and closing of the ovens mixed in with the clinks of cups and saucers in the kitchen, and the mellow jazz music fuse into a lovely mélange. All of a sudden, I am enjoying every moment that passes. I am able to glance out the window by my table and relish the way the Sunrays hit the richly green leaves of the trees. I feel myself living in the present, which can be very hard to do most of the time back in the daily life. This is why I compare escaping to such an environment to going on an overseas trip—when you are in a place so far away, you feel relaxed and reassured enough to constantly think and do in the present. You don’t worry about what’s to come or what has happened in the past. This is why I convinced myself that Café Besalu is a ‘second home’ to me—I can fully relax, let go and take in everything that surrounds me each time I make my visit. ~~MC P.S. Their pain au chocolat is literally the most amazing I have had in my life. Usually, you would find yourself searching for the hard, stiff, overly sweet chocolate somewhere in the depths of the stale pastry. At Café Besalu, you will surely get lost in the inexplicably rich, melted, conquering dark chocolate that almost flows through the freshly baked croissant. 12/23/2013 0 Comments IcebergPhoto is courtesy of the Ministry of Health, Samoa website. (I just typed "water" into Google image search and found this most appealing.)
You know when people keep saying that when you see an iceberg hovering above the ocean surface, you really only see 1/8 of its actual size? For some reason, this image has always given me the chills. This is likely because each time I am reminded of it, I find myself aware of the fact that I have no idea what to expect from the remaining 7/8. There is too much unknown to possibly conceptualize. Same thing goes with change. The fear one can have of facing the change happening in front of them may feel like facing the daunting task of visualizing (or attempting to visualize) 7/8 of an iceberg. Whether it is a death in the family, moving to another city, or losing touch with people you may have been very close with, going through the change may feel like your feet have suddenly lost contact with the ground. You are forced to navigate weightlessly, like you are under water. But, it is always good to remember that you will in time gain the steady weight again (I'm sorry, it just sounded like I'm talking about gaining weight, something that inevitably happens to all of us during the holidays. Okay...now I'm digressing). If you make the choice to take the change in a healthy way and take it one day at a time to accept the shift and learn how you can grow from it, you will find back the ground and slowly conceptualize the remaining bulk of the iceberg. Even if the idea of a dominating size of ice is silently taking over the body of water, you can learn to see it as nothing other than part of the ocean and its composition. I hope I have not gone too far with the iceberg metaphor, and if I have I sincerely apologize. More importantly, however, I hope this blog post has made sense in terms of how change can be seen and handled. Much love, ~~MC P.S. The reason why I did not put a picture of an iceberg in this blog post is simply because, as briefly mentioned, I have a strong fear of icebergs and looking at them. Seriously, like I could not even bring myself to type "iceberg" in Google image search. But, I will see this as an exciting challenge (that is, of little by little visualizing the iceberg). 12/22/2013 0 Comments Leap Towards the BetterPhoto above is courtesy of Coffee Shop Journal.
I had a small, very small epiphany earlier this morning. In the midst of my daily habit of having internal conversations with myself (I'm not crazy I swear), I realized that in the past several months I have become a better version of myself because of people who have treated me horribly. (Obviously not only because of these people, but partly for sure.) By "better version of myself," I mean after all the drama and during the dark-place-where-you-try-to-get-over-the-end-of-the-friendships phase, I took a hard look at myself and figured out what I needed to do. I didn't want to come out of the phase a broken person with the permanent fear of making new friends, because that would only make me a paralyzed person for the rest of my life. I instead wanted to come out a better person who grew from the experiences and the lessons drawn out of them. With that, I slowly but surely moved on. Also, one thing that surprised me in the process was how I also became a better version of myself from the new habits I developed unexpectedly. An example is my now-nearly-obsessive habit of writing poetry. After a bad experience I had with one of my ex-friends, my instinct told me to write a poem. I found that it helped me get over the pain and gradually move on with my life. Before I knew it, I bought myself a poetry journal and since then I've been writing poetry almost daily, during good times and bad. There will be cases in your life where those who have treated you the worst will push you to make a leap towards the better. Though, of course, whether you leap towards the better or towards the worse depends on your own personal choice. ~~MC 9/20/2013 0 Comments Something FamiliarLast night, I was watching a re-run of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (of whom I am a huge fan). When he announced in the beginning of the episode that Jack Johnson was to perform, it was all I could think about from that point on to where he introduced Johnson to the stage. Though I usually tune in to all the jokes and genuine moments on Late Night, this time I saw it all as a blur.
This description I just made is obviously a little bit of an overstatement, but I was still thoroughly excited and anticipating that moment where he would open his mouth and start singing in that lovely mellow voice of his. You see, a friend introduced me to his music a couple of years ago, and since then I have deemed him my all-time favorite musician. If I was only able to go to one more concert in my entire life, I would in a heartbeat choose to see Jack Johnson. With his infinitely calm singing voice that takes you to a weightless world where everything in life feels just a bit easier, and his effortless guitar strums and comforting lyrics that reassure you that you can in fact handle life's hurdles (with songs such as "Upside Down" and "No Other Way,"), I can safely say that he has helped me get through tough times and made me want to enjoy life a bit more ...Maybe these results also have to do simply with how he always seems to just have the best time of his life when he's performing live, or when you see him surfing in music videos. Anyway, it had been awhile since saw him on TV or perform in general. So, when he finally began to sing his new song on Late Night, I felt at home. I was reminded of those times in the past few years where I relied on his songs like free therapy sessions, as well as the times where I have just played his music for the pure enjoyment of feeling the sensation of calm take over me. It's nice to get in contact with something incredibly familiar to you, since life is full of changes (both good and bad). Here is the clip from Late Night. Although maybe you don't have the same attachment I have with his music, I still hope you enjoy the video as much as I did! http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x14wsvl_late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-jack-johnson-radiate_news ~~MC 7/31/2013 0 Comments A Road InvisibleDespite that I have had something on my mind for awhile, I did not think I could share it until now.
Now, I am a college graduate. For the past several months, my mind has been captivated by a gravel path that represents the rest of my life, or at least the next few years of my life. That path is not clear but blurry, not well-paved but incredibly cluttered and surrounded by inevitable dust. Before I get too carried away with my metaphor, I will state that I have felt captured by the fact that as a college graduate, I do not know what my future will look like. Sure, I have some idea of it--I know that I want to take a year off before I apply to the Christie's Masters Program in NY (or London, still must decide on the location). I know that I want to spend the next year growing intellectually and emotionally through internships and/or a full-time job. I know that I want to spend the year also by spending more quality time with my family, since school always got in the way of my making time for them. However, we all know that life is unpredictable and that it can sometimes take you to places you would never think of. I don't mean to make this sound negative, in fact I think it's positive! It is exciting to not know where you're going; and at the same time, we have the comfort of knowing that as long as one is always honest with him/herself and makes the right choices, they will be in the place they were meant to be. There is a part of me that's scared and that wishes the gravel path wasn't so blurred into the rest of the ground. But, part of life's beauty is knowing that you have the power to grab all the sticks and rocks you can to try and clarify that path, and that the gusts of wind will collaborate with you to naturally help make the path look the way it is meant. Again, I notice myself getting carried away by the path metaphor, so I will finish this blog post with a striking quote that relates to the topic, and with the hope that you have understood what I was elaborating :) : "We are glorious accidents of an unpredictable process with no drive to complexity, not the expected results of evolutionary principles that yearn to produce a creature capable of understanding the mode of its own necessary construction." ~Stephen Jay Gould Have a lovely (and pleasantly surprising) day! ~~MC 6/7/2013 0 Comments ChangesHappy Friday everyone!
Today I have decided to write a simple blog post dedicated to inspire you to make a change in your life once in awhile. This is because it is good to be reminded from time to time that a life without change is perhaps not a fulfilling one. Or rather, this quote delivers my point better than I can: "If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary." ~Jim Rohn Here is a list of ways you can add more variety and spice to your daily routine: 1. Get a major haircut 2. Pick a recipe you usually wouldn't go for, such as a complicated cake (never thought I would write "complicated cake" in a blog post, or anywhere for that matter) 3. Take a hot yoga class 4. Instead of your usual, pick a different coffee drink from the menu, or even choose a different syrup flavor for the beverage. 5. Buy a piece of clothing in a color you normally wouldn't wear (personal example: I recently bought a teal and white striped quarter sleeve shirt, when usually I wear short sleeved v-neck blue shirts) 6. Start a blog! It's a fulfilling hobby that allows you to put thoughts out there and share your passion with others. 7. Talk to a stranger. Even small talk can potentially open you up to fresh perspectives. 8. Add something to your pampering/self-care routine (ex. using olive oil instead of face wash to get rid of makeup and dirt at the end of the day. Yes, people do this, and it can also lessen acne!) And there you have it! A short list of ways you could change up your life! You are welcome to suggest more if you have any in mind; I am open to hearing what you think. Have a good day all! ~~MC 3/18/2013 0 Comments Surfacing from the Deepest OceanSometimes it feels good to take a breather from the Internet.
The photo of above is just one of the things you can choose to avoid, as other examples can be the news (especially since most of what we hear nowadays can be too heart-wrenching to let enter your mind) or YouTube videos. Here are just a few ways you can take a break from it today: -Reading -Writing (whether it be music, lyrics, music and lyrics, poetry, or stories; the list is endless--We humans were born to literally get our hands on something raw and material, and use our inner capabilities and spiritual creativity to turn it into something of our own.) -Talking with a family member in the kitchen or living room (I guess this can especially apply to me, since I spend 90% of my time at home in my room studying). -Admiring the nature outside your window while enjoying a mug of hot tea (or coffee, depending on what time of day you decide to do this.) -Listening to music -A combination of any of the above; to give you a helpful example, this morning I turned on the radio to a soothing jazz station and let the tunes echo in my room, while I watched the rain fall gently outside and held my mug of coffee in my right hand (my left hand was busy clicking and scrolling idly through numerous Word documents of practice problems for my upcoming accounting exam). So, I guess this list has (hopefully) inspired you to realize that time can always be spent in other ways than on the Internet. Sure, you need the Internet to get some work done, to study, or to get yourself updated on what's going on in the world outside your window. But, there is always the point that your brain reaches where it needs to swim back up to the surface of the deepest ocean ever and take a few refreshing breaths. ~~MC 8/12/2011 0 Comments Your New Flare!Do you find yourself almost dying of boredom or at least wondering what things are still getting you excited about your daily life? An easy solution is this: Begin the adventure of a new hobby. :)
When I started this blog a little more than six months ago, I was looking for a bit of new excitement in my life. I had no problem with my daily routine of going to school, hanging out with friends and watching my favorite shows late at night, but sometimes I felt like I needed an outlet for the little sparks of passion for food and art that were bouncing around crazily in my brain. Plus, a little change or something new is always good. It brings a new flare to your life that motivates you and gets you up and running about making a fresh commitment. Anything like making jewelry, gardening, or starting a new blog (like I have...and I must say I recommend it because it's definitely made my daily routine a little brighter and more fulfilling) would be just another reason for you to enjoy every day that comes to you! Enjoy your new flare! ~~MC 7/14/2011 0 Comments Spilled MilkWhat's a good way to take a break from listening to music, if you find yourself in the midst of a desperate crave for something refreshing?
Weeelll, I advise you to feast your ears on a podcast I recently came across, called Spilled Milk. It would have made sense for me to write this post on my Foods for Fantasizing page, but since this podcast has personally made my lazy mornings just a bit more vibrant and exciting, I felt that it therefore would fit more nicely within the terms of Life au Cochon (i.e. ways to make your life just a bit better). :) This entertaining and thoughtful dish of conversation is served once every week or so by Molly Wizenberg, author of one of my all-time favorite books titled A Homemade Life (which I briefly touched on in a previous Life au Cochon post), and Matthew Amster-Burton, author of the acclaimed Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater, who accompanies Molly on the air as an amusing complement to her intellectually stimulating reflections on certain foods... These two cuisine devotees will leave you in a mindset of fireworks about food that people would usually ignore and leave unappreciated. They will allow you to unearth the things you may have forgotten to admire at every encounter, or within every memory you may have visited. With their lovable sense of humor that wakes you up like a steaming cup of coffee served in the warm atmosphere of a Seattle coffee shop, perfectly blended with the syrups and spices of an utterly contagious passion for cooking, trying new and familiar foods and everything else under the Sun, you cannot help but feel your inner chef coming alive, energized and readier than ever to tackle all cuisine-related obstacles that might come your way...and of course, readier than ever to devour every opportunity of a delicious chocolate cake or piece of fudge that arrives along the way. :) So pour yourself a cup of green tea (or coffee, if you wish to become highly stimulated even before listening to the podcast!), sit down in your comfiest chair, and take a listen to Spilled Milk, where two voices will simply urge you to dive into the pleasure and experience food the way a skydiver leaps into their daring yet exhilarating journey! http://www.spilledmilkpodcast.com/2011/07/ (Here's the link) ~~MC |
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