A friend posted this magnificent TED Talk and I spent the entire 20 minutes rapt with the speaker's findings and message:
A commenter on the video site posted this apparently Taoist mantra in response:
To be whole, let yourself break.
To be straight, let yourself bend.
To be full, let yourself be empty.
To be new, let yourself wear out.
To have everything, give everything up.
Knowing others is a kind of knowledge;
knowing yourself is wisdom.
Conquering others requires strength;
conquering yourself is true power.
To realize that you have enough is true wealth.
Pushing ahead may succeed,
but staying put brings endurance.
Die without perishing, and find the eternal.
To know that you do not know is strength.
Not knowing that you do not know is a sickness.
The cure begins with the recognition of the sickness.
Knowing what is permanent: enlightenment.
Not knowing what is permanent: disaster.
Knowing what is permanent opens the mind.
Open mind, open heart.
Open heart, magnanimity.
Traditional Taoism is a bit too mystical for my tastes, but I love these words. A LOT.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Today I...
woke up at a reasonable hour (9:30) from a girls' night/sleepover with church friends.
brunched in Astoria with said friends with mimosa and coffee.
ran outside in sub-50s temperatures for the first time EVER. Aside from regular tissue breaks, it was actually really refreshing and surprisingly easy. More, please.
will bake a vegetarian cheeseburger noodle casserole--a childhood favorite (minus the vegetarian part), and then consume a serving with bottled beer.
will lesson plan so tomorrow (day off!) can be set aside for chores and friendships.
will watch probably too many episodes of The West Wing on loan from the library (I only have a week to finish a half a season. Justified.).
The point is, the person living the day outlined above is practically a stranger to the one who inhabited my life even two years ago. She even goes by a different name sometimes. =) There are the obvious partitions between life segments (graduations, apartment, jobs...), and then there are the incremental shifts that occur daily. Community-building. Diet and exercise routines. Coffee! Of course, this duality of change is no revelation. But the occasional perspective check can be amusing, revealing, and promising of possibility.
K
brunched in Astoria with said friends with mimosa and coffee.
ran outside in sub-50s temperatures for the first time EVER. Aside from regular tissue breaks, it was actually really refreshing and surprisingly easy. More, please.
will bake a vegetarian cheeseburger noodle casserole--a childhood favorite (minus the vegetarian part), and then consume a serving with bottled beer.
will lesson plan so tomorrow (day off!) can be set aside for chores and friendships.
will watch probably too many episodes of The West Wing on loan from the library (I only have a week to finish a half a season. Justified.).
The point is, the person living the day outlined above is practically a stranger to the one who inhabited my life even two years ago. She even goes by a different name sometimes. =) There are the obvious partitions between life segments (graduations, apartment, jobs...), and then there are the incremental shifts that occur daily. Community-building. Diet and exercise routines. Coffee! Of course, this duality of change is no revelation. But the occasional perspective check can be amusing, revealing, and promising of possibility.
K
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Food Musings
Chili is easy. Beans. Tomato something. Spices. Sweet. Vegetables. Tada!
Homemade fries are made crispier and tastier by the addition of cornstarch to the frying oil.
Corn tortillas are awful "raw" but mysteriously delicious cooked. Like eggplant. Fun fact: In addition to maintaining a lackluster flavor, raw eggplant is also mildly poisonous.
Why don't they typically market the French Press as a dual coffee-tea maker? It totally is.
Gouda is an acceptable substitute for almost any other type of solid cheese. Flavorful enough to cover for cheddar on a cracker or burrito, sharp enough to be swapped in for swiss on a sandwich, mild and soft enough to replace mozzarella in Italian fare. And the smoked variety can almost pass for a meaty flavor if you squint your tastebuds (is there a word to approximate "squint" for taste?). Anyway, it's the frugal shopper's best friend in the dairy section.
Sometimes, granola bar companies pass out free samples on the street. And sometimes they leave the sample in a bag on your apartment doorknob. Surprise afterschool snack!!
Here's hoping for enough figurative candy bars and milkshakes (as opposed to lemondrops and gumdrops--look it up) for a day off tomorrow...
Oh, and beware when selecting your free bagel from Planet Fitness. Minced garlic looks an awful lot like sesame seeds, but only one tastes good with jam.
Homemade fries are made crispier and tastier by the addition of cornstarch to the frying oil.
Corn tortillas are awful "raw" but mysteriously delicious cooked. Like eggplant. Fun fact: In addition to maintaining a lackluster flavor, raw eggplant is also mildly poisonous.
Why don't they typically market the French Press as a dual coffee-tea maker? It totally is.
Gouda is an acceptable substitute for almost any other type of solid cheese. Flavorful enough to cover for cheddar on a cracker or burrito, sharp enough to be swapped in for swiss on a sandwich, mild and soft enough to replace mozzarella in Italian fare. And the smoked variety can almost pass for a meaty flavor if you squint your tastebuds (is there a word to approximate "squint" for taste?). Anyway, it's the frugal shopper's best friend in the dairy section.
Sometimes, granola bar companies pass out free samples on the street. And sometimes they leave the sample in a bag on your apartment doorknob. Surprise afterschool snack!!
Here's hoping for enough figurative candy bars and milkshakes (as opposed to lemondrops and gumdrops--look it up) for a day off tomorrow...
Oh, and beware when selecting your free bagel from Planet Fitness. Minced garlic looks an awful lot like sesame seeds, but only one tastes good with jam.
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