This above all:

To thine own self be true.

Ideas...

Interesting people doing inspirational things.

Waves of Hope: http://elcocoloconicaragua.com/woh.php

Casa Llanta: http://www.casallanta.com/Home.html

Earthship: http://www.earthshippitayafestival.com/

Triathlon training day 1...

So I have decided that 2010 is going to be my year of random fitness goals. The major one is the triathlon I have decided to participate in in August. It's what I'd like to call a baby triathlon - 400m swim, 10km bike, and 2.5km run.... the distances might not be long, but I think that's plenty to start! ;) I would also like to run at least one half marathon, probably in the spring. Considering how miserably out of shape I am, I decided to start training now!

Today was my first day of training and the following were my numbers:

Run - 2.5km in 18.52 minutes, average incline of 4.

... followed by 20 minutes of strength training, lifting weights, etc...

Bike - 10km in 23.04 minutes, average include of 8.

Not so fabulous overall BUT it's only day one and I can get through the triathlon land distances without dying - good news! And really, I am posting these rather dismal numbers to look back on in 10 months and see just how far I have come. :)

Yippie!

mxo

Stories...

Maya has been instructed to write her story... in the third person. Strange.

Today's song: "Protection" by Massive Attack.... AND... "Knock You Down" by Keri Hilson - so all over the place, I know! That's Maya's way. ;)

Soundtrack continued...

oct. 24 - "Today Will Be Better, I Swear!" by the Stars

oct. 25 - "Good Man" by India Arie

oct. 26 - "Waiting Line" by Zero 7

oct. 27 - "Shine" by Rosi Golan

nov. 1 - "I Don't Live in a Dream" by Jackie Greene

nov. 3 - "Enchantment" by Lily Frost

nov. 8 - "Beautiful Flower" by India Arie

and today...

nov. 9 - "Running" by Jully Black

Be the change you wish to see...

It's such a cliche at this point, which is unfortunate, but it nevertheless remains true: change begins with each and every one of us.

Gok Wan is doing a wonderful thing. He has started a campaign, and a hit TV show, to help British women feel good about themselves JUST AS THEY... right NOW ... naked! What a wonderfully refreshing concept... and really, it's about time! So many of us waste such a profound amount of time stressing about something "someone" told us we should be stressing about, time that we could be using to live our lives freely, happily, confidentially, etc. I realize it's easier to say than do, but I really think that the time has come for us to shake the shackles of some boring and outdated social norms. The future of little girls everywhere, at least with respect to body image, depends on us.

Today feels like: "Beautiful Flower" by India Arie.

Enchantment...

What an enchanting day! Just the beginning, I presume.

A land forgotten...

This weekend felt like Jackie Greene's "I Don't Live in a Dream". 100%.

Growth...

It's truly funny where life chooses to drop meaningful lessons. I cried like a little baby tonight when Abby was sent home from The Biggest Loser. I haven't watched a single episode of this season, although I know her story: a young woman struggling to find herself after losing her entire family to an awful car crash. But she picked herself up, dusted off the cobwebs, and got on with living. Now she's travelling the US motivating others to get on with living. It's unexpected tidbits like this, found randomly while channel surfing on a lazy Tuesday night, that really put things into perspective. True perspective.

Today most certainly feels like Rosi Golan's, "Shine" - Abby's farewell song on the show.

This life is light, It’s light burns bright

So we’ll take it day by day and let it be

And everyone will see how good it feels

Oh they’ll see the world for all that it could be

Let the sunlight in, I wanna feel it from within

You spin me around and make me feel like I could Shine, shine.

So what do you say if the sky turned grey?

With a kiss you’d send the rainclouds on they’re way

This life is light, it’s light burns bright

Every moment is a moment you could say

Soundtracks...

I have always thought it would be pretty neat to document my days through music and create a soundtrack for my life (well, more realistically, a certain small segment of my life). So, for the next little while, when I remember, I will do just that. Here goes...

Saturday, October 24th, 2009 feels like: "Today Will Be Better, I swear!" by the Stars. Such a good song.

Sunday, October 25th, 2009 feels like: anything off India Arie's "Voyage to India" album, but probably "Good Man" if I had to pick one. Gets me every time... don't know why, it just does.

Monday, October 26th, 2009 feels like: "In The Waiting Line" by Zero 7. FANTASTIC song. Do you believe in what you see... motionless wheel, nothing is real... wasting my time in the waiting line... do you believe in what see?

Random Maya tid-bits on a Tuesday night...

m. is...

1. Loving the new Zero 7 record, Yeah Ghost - it's about time!
2. Contemplating training for a sprint triathlon. Hey, why not?
3. Wanting to go dancing.
4. Wanting to travel.
5. Wondering what the future will hold - more of the same or something entirely new.
6. Enjoying her glass of valpolicella deliciousness.
7. A wee bit bored... and cursing her dad for telling her as a kid that intelligent people never get bored. Ufff.
8. Looking forward to 90210.
9. Introspective and a wee bit sad... but hopeful.
10. Contemplating a second piece of that amazing chocolate - organic, 80% cocoa with orange and spices... yummmm.
11. Hanging out with Charlie.
12. Liking the red soles on Oprah's awfully high high heel. P.S. Oprah muted isn't nearly as interesting.
13. Stopping at 13 - her favourite number.

mxo

Risks...

How do you know if that nudge inside to do something is life calling you to take a risk, or if it's just recklessness taking over? How do you know what you'll regret more: doing something or never knowing? How do you know if the risk is right for you?

Apparently you can't leap a twenty-foot chasm in two ten-feet jumps... but why not? Why does it have to be all or nothing, now or never?

Round and round and round...

When the world won't stop spinning, all you can do is sit back and enjoy the ride. I have had the time of my life over the past few weeks. See below:

New friends, old friends, I love my friends.

mxo

Cloudy Sundays...

I don't have much to say this week - my world has been spinning round and round and round recently and I've essentially fallen off all wagons. But fear not! The air's achanging and good things are just around the corner.

For now, I leave you with an interesting cover of one of my favourite songs of all time... what ever happened to Lauryn Hill anyways?

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.