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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5/21/2014 0 Comments SanityPhoto courtesy of Kyle Meyer.
Lately, I have discovered why Mother Nature is so amazing. I'm talking about the sense of calm you can't get from anything else; the magnetic pull you feel towards thinking, feeling and living in the present. Now let me tell you why I sound like I had never seen a tree before in my life... 90% of my sleep consists of dreams of unpleasant/stressful scenarios, or of possible outcomes and other things to do with the future or the unknown. I wake up in the morning with tension in my neck and shoulders, and even worse, I wake up with a mind filled with negativity and anxiety. It all seems to wear off by the end of breakfast time, but sometimes fragments of it stay with me through the rest of the day. This situation has dwindled down to a near zero since I started going to the park in the morning. I used to walk/jog for the sake of exercising, but now it 's for the sake of my sanity. I still have the unpleasant dreams at night, but I feel less tense after I wake up as I get more enjoyment out of the rest of my day. Whenever I'm in the nature, I feel small and insignificant. The trees and sky towering over me, combined with the reassuring silence (save for the light chirping of the birds, my favorite sound!), makes me feel like all my worries are minor and not such a big deal. So next time you feel like you are on the brink of falling into a deep bottomless pit of despair (or, you know, you just feel like taking a walk after a long day at work), take yourself on a tour of Mother Nature and feel your negative thoughts melt away. ~~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 3/21/2013 0 Comments Forgetting MichelangeloSometimes when you find yourself in such a state of worry that you pray for your inner sanity to escape from it unscathed, it helps to turn your face to the window and watch the rain fall outside.
Whether you see a drizzle as light as the weight of the foam that sits quietly on your mug of morning cappuccino, or a hailstorm as tormenting as the itching anticipation of Monday sneaking from around the corner (not today, obviously, because it's only Thursday), it is always comforting to witness an act as natural as Mother Nature quenching her thirst through one of the most refreshing things a human being can ever encounter. Will watching the tumbling drops allow you to calm your worried mind? Undoubtedly. Will it lead you to be so inspired that you end up writing one of the best masterpieces of poetry anyone has ever read, or sculpting a piece so endlessly captivating that one can easily forget that Michelangelo's David statue existed? Maybe, maybe not. You can never dream too big though, and it never hurts to see where a calm mind can lead you to. :) ~~MC 7/12/2011 0 Comments Exceptionally Lovely. :)Hello!
I know I just elaborated on the greatness of nature in my last post, but I must do it again because of how effective it is to put yourself in that kind of surroundings! Last weekend (and yes, on the same day that I had my memorable taste adventure at Top Pot, as featured in today's Foods for Fantasizing post!), there was a family gathering at Greenlake that I attended to. I had forgotten how beautiful Greenlake can be especially in the summertime, and that is why I urge you to take a jog, walk, or even just a quick visit to a park or lake that sits near where you are...It is definitely a sure way to relax your senses, calm your thoughts and release any tensions you may have had during the day. :) Greenlake is a place where people of all ages will meet up and hang out, and do various activities--walking/jogging side-by-side while having decorative and meaningful conversation, boating together, eating frozen yogurt, jumping in the cool sensation of the lake water, throwing little picnic parties (which was what my family and I did), and even just sitting on the grass to admire the sunset as the brilliant light reflects off of the calm-sitting water. Nature enhances whatever experience you are going through, as it brings you to an inspired state of mind and to a feeling you don't want to escape from...So especially on a clear, warm day in the Summer that already makes the day quite lovely, it's a great idea to spend some free time taking a walk in nature, or taking in a natural scenery in order to turn the day from lovely to exceptionally lovely. :) ~~MC 7/6/2011 0 Comments MagicWas there a time when you were walking among nature or just natural things in general, and you suddenly found yourself with the inexplicable urge to take snapshots of everything around you because of how beautiful it was?
Call me a Seattle stereotype, but this happens to me almost all the time! I am a lover of nature--I love taking pictures of pretty sunsets that take over your mind and imagination; of the emerald green, origami-thin leaves of the Japanese maple trees that stand and reflect the glowing Sun in my backyard; and I also think it's worth taking snapshots of times where nature may surprise you, such as the photo I posted here. :) This picture was taken on my last night in California, when my family and I were about to leave a shopping center after enjoying a feast of sushi and egg drop soup at one of the many restaurants there. These rows of palm trees were standing in the central parking area...but also, they were standing against the lovely backdrop of the clear sky turning quickly into night; the Sun had just finished setting, as the string of lights that wound around the trees' standing bodies were glowing just as brightly. This scene had surprised me because even though the trees were in the middle of a suburban area that consisted of pavements and buildings instead of pure damp dirt and rushing streams, I still found myself feeling that same peace with nature as when jogging in a trail. This is not to say that you would get the same experience from jogging a trail as standing in the middle of a shopping center at nighttime...But I do mean to say that these palm trees hadn't lost their magic despite where they were. :) So if you all of a sudden find yourself wanting to take a picture of that sunset above the lake in front of you, or of that row of trees that always caught your eye during your morning jog, don't hold back because you don't know when you're going to see that same feeling of magic again! ~~MC 6/14/2011 0 Comments The Most Honest ThingThis morning (and yesterday morning), I rediscovered another amazing way you can make your day better...And that is taking a walk or jog outside in the midst of Mother Nature's surroundings. :)
Not only will you get fresh air in your brain and lungs, you will also get a taste of something that presents itself exactly the way it was meant to be...I would say nature is the most honest thing on Earth, that it doesn't try to hide itself--what you see is what you get. I have always found this notion to be comforting, and so running for the first time in months yesterday brought me back to that state of silence that you can enjoy for yourself. So instead of sleeping in (which is nice too I'm sure ;) ), take some time to yourself to walk in the nature, and breathe in an air you can't find anywhere else. ~~MC P.S. I took these pictures during a jog in the park near my house last winter...It was a lovely, crisp, fresh winter morning and I didn't want to leave!...And I couldn't resist taking these pictures while running (well, not while running; I just kept stopping in my tracks to take them; though I didn't end up getting as big of a workout as I would have without my camera phone, I enjoyed being in the nature anyways :) ). |
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