Tidbits...

Here is what I have learned this month: time is flying by faster than I can keep up with! Case in point: it's been over two weeks since my last blog; I thought it had barely been one. I didn't go see a movie this month; I was convinced the last one I saw was just a couple of weekends ago. So, it seems that if I am to have any success with my "challenge", I need to forego my myopic tendencies and get organized! :)

And now, some interesting life tidbits:

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." (Albert Einstein)
"The life which is unexamined is not worth living." (Plato)
"We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way." (John Halt)
"Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand." (Baruch Spinoza)

Checking in...

Here's the thing about committing to something: sometimes you really don't want to do it but you do anyways, because you promised yourself you would.

I'm just getting my feet wet in my self-imposed challenge and although I don't always want to partake, I'm already reaping the benefits. I have made some absolutely delicious, feel good food from Heidi Swanson's book - think Banana Walnut Espresso Muffins (I added chocolate because I'm a glutton), some amazing curried carrot soup, wheat berry feta salad, biscuits, cookies, etc, etc. I have stretched myself silly in restorative yoga which you all must try. But by far the most rewarding have been the books. Of the books I have read in the last month, these are absolute must reads:

• One Hundred Years of Solitude (Marquez) - Not an easy read, especially given that all of the characters over the several generations captured in the book seem to share the same name... but well worth the 400+ pages. It's a classic. Enough said.
• Still Alice (Genova) - Oh my goodness. I cried and I cried and I cried and I cried... Still Alice is an absolutely beautiful story about a Harvard professor who develops early onset Alzheimer's. It's a heart-breaking story about life, love, identity, loss, etc. A must read.
• To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee) - Hands down my favourite book of all time (and I have read a lot of books).
• The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry (Flinn) - Think "Eat, Pray, Love" but set at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. A deliciously entertaining read.

I leave you with a quote from Flinn's book:

Living is like driving," my grandmother used to say. "You have to pick a lane."

Life is not a dress rehearsal...

Here's the thing about life, folks, there are no do-overs (Being Erica doesn't count). I will never again be one of those kids with their crisp, so clean it must be the first day of school backpacks heading to school anxiously wondering what this year will bring. I will never again be a 19-year-old frosh kid parading proudly through campus in a neon green "Freshman" t-shirt, an emblem that might as well read, "I'm no longer in high school!" I will never again be 15, 21, or 24. All there is here and ahead, and we aren't even certain how much farther we have to go.

Now, I'm certainly not the type to say (and belief) that we should all live as though this day is our last. That just seems like a recipe to end up broke and fat. But in the end, it's true - this day, this year, might just be our last. If nothing else, this day, this year, are far too fleeting to waste. This is what I have learned. I spent the last six years tirelessly working towards a goal I wasn't even sure was mine, completely putting off how I wanted to live. While I don't regret a minute of it, because it granted me this realization, I now know that I can't do any of it over. All I can do is stop putting off living from here on in. This is my public declaration.

Year o' Travel...

Trip one - Nica.
Trip two - London. Brussels. Amsterdam. Berlin. Prague. Poland and back again. Maybe even a little jaunt in Thailand before heading home.

Let the planning begin! :)

Stories...

Life, as I see it, is a narrative and we are its narrators. What we write determines how the story unfolds. Of course, outside circumstances and other characters play a role, but they merely paint the landscape through which the protagonist must navigate. It is us, as the narrators, who determine how the protagonist reacts to his or her environment. We determine how we behave, who we are, and what our stories are. Just us. And so I wonder, who would you be without your story?

My favourite story for this week - both in print and in film - is To Kill a Mockingbird. It may in fact be my favourite story of all time. It so poignantly establishes just that principle - that we are solely responsible for who we are and how we react to the world around us. I leave you with perhaps my favourite line of the entire story: "If there's just one kind of folk, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other?"

Hmmm...

A quick tidbit on this beautiful September morning: Julia Child was born on my name day*AND she died on my birthday.

Seems like Mrs. Child and I have a bit of a connection... I'm just saying... :)


*For those of you wondering what the hell a name day is, it's an old Polish thing. Your name day, or "imieniny", is essentially a celebration of the saint you're named after, and it has traditionally been more important than your birthday.