If life is a box of chocolates, I should be enjoying the one I am eating.
Wondering what ordinary days would be like if more energy was consumed in experiencing the current moment? Not thinking about the next thing or the last thing, but the present thing. Does this make for a better person?
For a simple example: tonight when a hostess put two forks in my take-out, I wouldn't have wondered as I walked home if she thought the quantity I'd ordered was enough to share, if I looked like I wouldn't be eating alone, if she was absent-minded, if she wasn't concerned about wasting the restaurants supplies, if she thought I'd recycle them, or or or...but seriously the placement of 2 forks vs. 1. Preposterous. That deserved no investment of time. I would have moved on to enjoying the festive feel of downtown during the holiday season, the liberty of breathing the crisp night air on a free evening, feeling the base emotion I see in the street beggars eyes....I don't know.
Thinking about thinking....isn't there a word for that? I'll stop. But the goal of finding the present remains.
Dear reader,
A bit of fine-print or declaration feels necessary. There is something about posting to a blog or participating in Facebook that fills me with a slight bit of trepidation in this modern age. Trepidation because it could be used as a pedestal to brag about experiences or express opinions/thoughts that don't benefit your living. I would prefer it to be merely a means of sharing what I've been up to (or not) and participating in the data flow that I appreciate from you. It's not that any of this substitutes for hearty honest relationships! It doesn't.
I'll stop. Perhaps you understand.
Good day to you,
Kateen
I have joked often over the last 11 months that retirement will suit me well. It will! And yet I crave the growth and challenge that comes from situations and people that I do not choose...namely "work".
The leisure, the geography, the food, the culture, the skill, etc...all just details. I have learned:
- a certain quantity of uncertainty is beneficial;
- to enjoy relaxing in cafes for indeterminate periods of time;
- to be satisfied with whatever a day brings, as a "total waste" is simply not possible;
- how to let myself off the hook;
- the value of bring present;
- that the projects I planned to do during my time off, but haven't done, will likely never be completed as they didn't ever pass the cost/benefit test (electronic recipe book, etc.);
- how to make truffles and other calorific time-intensive recipes;
- the benefits of prioritizing what matters most;
- to see the futility of most routines;
- what truly defines an individual is not their average day or experience;
- that actually finishing books feels good (favorites of the year were: "The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World" and "What I Know Now: Letters to My Younger Self";
- and finally that though independence and flightiness has their allure, quality interaction is priceless.
"...There is something
Deep and pulling leaving everything behind
Something about having everthing
You think you'll ever need
Sitting in the seat next to you
And I watch
Another white dash
Another white dash..."
Tempting...smile! Alas, responsible living calls.
- Texting while driving (top-o-the-list)
- Checking my email at traffic lights
- Passing entire classes in college because of studying while driving
- Dipping, cutting, etc. awkward food while steering with my knee
With cause to be a better driver,
A repentant Seattle girl
Sure there is something odd about naming a book-reading device after a verb that has to do with beginning to burn something (kindle)...and sure it lacks some of the sensory delight of a paper book...and sure I shouldn't read it in the hot tub....and I can't use it during take-offs and landings....but oh the technological delight, efficient packing pleasure, immediate gratification after reading a book review, decreased urgency to retrieve my mail (newspaper and magazines subscriptions automatically update), and hours of quality entertainment this will provide!
What is happening to our world...today I even put together a jigsaw puzzle online at jigzone.com!
I really don't feel this way about this beverage or this company...though after digesting the quote on my cup today, I experienced a brand of intravenous inspiration.
The Way I See It #76: "The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating - in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life."
– Anne Morriss Starbucks customer from New York City. She describes herself as an "organization builder, restless American citizen, optimist."
"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."
~ Alan Cohen
Can someone tell me why America doesn't run out of turkeys? What other commodity enjoys such a spike in demand? I imagine a complex spreadsheet estimating number of households, average ounces per attendee, shelf life of frozen meat, gestation and time to mature to an average weight, probability of disease, variables of feed commodities, number and capacity of producers, shipping time, etc. Sure there are price differentials, but no news hurrah created by a shortage.
Perhaps this is our best example of accurate forecasting?
While I do tend to think the best of people, I am somewhat rocked by my neighbor's tendency to steal my Sunday paper. I watch people on my floor a little more and in my spare time contemplate the proper way to address such. So, while an item of a petty nature, I am curious how you would handle this.
I formerly thought that I'd be 85-years-of-age before I became sentimental and "old-fashioned". Yet this application may have accelerated that state. Notably, I was wooed into paying the requisite $0.99 for the technological wonder. Simulating the movements of jumping rope with iPhone in hand while watching the jumps add up and calories be calculated is oddly gratifying! Are jump ropes a relic of the past? Will children years from now laugh at my tales of being the master at double-dutch in the school yard?
Another summer has passed and so I mourn the fact that I didn't stare into more campfires thinking about everything, but nothing. Serenaded by light. Relaxed. Surreal. Wild. Safe.
Oh and I meant to use these instructions to make a disposable camp oven to bake something delectable over the fire....
Next year! Smile!
A note to advertisers: I find your encouragement to say it with flowers or chocolate or whatever you want to sell the populous disheartening. Five Languages of Love aside, surely we can gather the courage to simply say it.
If pressed, I could compromise regarding the item being used as confirmation....after "it" was said. Yet in NO case should you market the belief that monetary sacrifice is necessary to express the intents of the heart.
I'll stop now.
nocebo • \noh-SEE-boh\ • noun
1: a harmless substance that when taken by a patient is associated with harmful effects due to negative expectations or the psychological condition of the patient
Example sentence: Since drinking too much orange soda as a young child, tasting such as an adult produces a nocebo effect.
Word history: Coined in 1961 from the Latin "nocēre," meaning "to harm." The direct translation, "I will be harmful," contrasts with "placebo," meaning "I shall please."
Is there any correlation between comfort and dollars paid on a shoe? And does it matter if they're made in the mountains of Italy or an undisclosed location? Anyway...who knew that purchasing a stylish heeled sandal could make me feel like I had arrived at womanhood? Perhaps this is similar to the feeling of reaching biker status after steering a bike by the seat around tourists in the slender walkways across the Ballard Locks. Or amateur photographer status after taking a great night shot. Or poet status after scribbling several unintelligible lines on a napkin. Or tech-geek status after checking email twice at a stoplight. Ah well...I suppose self-definition ends up being fairly meaningless anyway...smile...
Single supplement. I suppose the concept makes sense, in that it may take more than 1/2 of the time and effort to serve 1 person as it takes to serve 2...HOWEVER I tire of finding the perfect escape, noting the superscript star, and referencing the 5 point font to determine there is a $486 single supplement....repeatedly. Not that I prefer to go alone, it's just really good fortune to find someone to go on a last minute adventure. I'll stop. Seattle's clouds are growing on me...perhaps I'll just stay here...smile! In the meantime, please send help...or $486.
Here is my ode to females who have done more with themselves in their lifetimes than curate a domestic museum.
1. I feel impelled to taste-test new products...such as the item to the left. Ew.
2. On occasion, I enjoy meat...yet eating it off the bone disgusts me.
3. I have to read: cereal boxes, shampoo bottles, coffee cups...anything.
4. I am easily inspired. I find follow-through more admirable and difficult.
5. "Knowledge is power." resonates more with me than "Ignorance is bliss."
6. I believe in resilience of body & spirit, yet am not as tough as I may seem.
7. Product names cloud my purchasing-sense (more adjectives are better!).
8. I think far too much....and secretly envy people who can "space out."
9. I unintentionally and statistically end up talking to people on the bus.
10. I believe heartily in the placebo effect...yes, my multi-vitamin "works."
