Happy accident

The accident was 1/2 tsp of cardamom. Everyone loved it! It has been said and it bears repeating, sharing is caring:

You will need:

• a big pot and a spatula
• olive oil
• half a stick of butter
• chopped medium white onion
• chopped garlic (3-4 cloves) or 2 tsp of pre-chopped garlic (the ones in a jar)
• chopped celery (4-5 stalks)
• chopped mild chorizo (1/2 or a full u-shaped piece)
• a pack of Italian chicken strips (the ready-to-eat kind for salads), you could opt for boiled chicken breast strips
• chicken broth powder (or chicken broth, your volume of choice)
• other seasoning like ground pepper or ginger powder or in my case, I accidentally put cardamom powder because it had a similar packaging to my stored ginger powder (tasted great, though)
• water and/or chicken broth
• 150-200g of egg noodles (your choice of shape) or pasta noodles

Directions:

• heat olive oil then add stick of butter; let the butter melt
• sauté onion, garlic, celery, and carrots at the same time; no need to fully wilt just cook enough to infuse
• at this point, you can season it with chicken powder and whatever seasoning you like; if you’re going to use chicken broth you might want to adjust the seasoning 
• add chorizo, mix a bit, cover the pan for about 3-5 minutes
• add chicken strips, maybe cook with the rest of the ingredients for another 3-5 minutes (this is technically cooked already)
• add either chicken broth and/or water until everything is fully submerged and you have more than enough water for the noodles (note that the noodles will expand and the boiling process will evaporate part of the liquid so you may need to take that into account)
• wait until the liquid boils
• add the noodles and continue to stir until cooked 
• taste the broth and season if appropriate 
• turn off heat
• serve!

I made this up and you can modify as you see fit. I think the onion-celery-carrot trifecta is supposed to be the base of many soups so it should be foolproof. This dish is really soothing and you’ll need a napkin to wipe your sweat or blow your nose. 😄 The warmth and steam will surely clear some congestion. LOL. Cheers!

Let the good cheer uplift

Free image from pixabay

We were at the supermarket beside the mall and it’s undeniably the holiday season. Aside from the holiday piped-in music, festive food packaging, and seasonal items, the snow and feels-like-negative-thirteen-degrees-celsius weather comprise part of the richness of this season. Advent, in the Roman Catholic Liturgical Calendar, begins next Sunday. I love this season—I know I sound like a broken record. Oh and all the pepperminty and cinnamony smells…it’s fantastic. Also, I’ve been listening to a couple of holiday playlists. 

My recent posts have been on the sad scale and I promised myself that I won’t apologize for those. I acknowledge the micro and macro level sadnesses that lurk around everyone. Some people are more impacted than others such as those living amidst civil unrest or war. Like my reflection a few posts ago, I think that there will always be reasons to smile. For me, I’m easily pleased by red with green, warm and cozy clothing, sugary treats, hot drinks, feel-good films, and holiday music. Must also mention my gratitude for the presence of family and friends. 

To commence this celebration of things to be grateful for, I’m currently sipping on a mug of instant cafe mocha, after which I will finish a lilac coloured crocheted hat. It’s Sunday, friends. A little self-love. Cheers.

Landslide

[updated] 

“Caught in a landslide” is the theme. There are situations that warrant assistance or support, but there are other situations which are destructive vortices like black holes. You know what I mean? The good thing is that unlike a black hole, I still have some control and a choice. What is most frustrating is when victimhood and pulling other’s pity heartstrings comprise the main ammunition, whereby guilt is the impetus towards the journey to the black hole. And it all started by being in the vicinity, just like being literally caught in a landslide. It’s tricky, eh? Being embroiled in circumstances that do not concern a person may be measured in reference to a range of possible scenarios including humanitarian effort to petty meddling. I know that we all have our particular states of affairs with varying degrees of complexity. Like the beautiful actress Constance Wu once exhorted in an interview, it’s helpful to rememebr that if someone is being uncharacteristically different (behaviour or interaction), they are likely going through something challenging. And then based on specifics, we can evaluate what kind of support is helpful or futile. We have always been urged to “be kind” yet I feel that “be kind to yourself” is also worth flashing on the theatre marquee of our lives. Billy Shakespeare (sorry English lit fanatics for the nickname), in his writing, proposed that all the world’s a stage and that we’re all merely players. Furthermore, I believe that we don’t always have to identify with either the protagonist or antagonist. I personally prefer being in the ensemble, because being in the background while singing and executing choreographed movements in unison with other fellow unnamed characters is more fun and has less pressure. Nonexpert, non-theatre, ordinary human opinion of course. 

Senses and stimuli

I have a few texts that I'm currently reading--both old and new acquisitions, and in a variety of formats. Much like when I randomly think of something and want to know more about it, I'd normally Google it. I thought, how about this time I randomly lay my eyes on a hard copy of something and read bits and pieces of it. It's less pressure and commitment to stick to one text, right? Plus, a pile of written stuff beside the bed is a slightly better alternative to my smartphone for my aging eyeballs. And you ask, what are you avoiding, Anna? Thanks for asking, and right you are, I am avoiding something. How about  blue light, wi-fi/bluetooth waves, non-essential information, negative sense triggers?

On the topic of the senses, I have an old book by Diane Ackerman entitled "A Natural History of the Senses", which I believe was recommended a long time ago by a former colleague. It sounds very textbook-y, but I honestly think it's like a documentary version of a romance novel. *awkward nerdy laugh* Well, how about that? A rousing text around some very touchy-feely topics about biological phenomena?  I may have to read this again. Which is annoying, because I've just decided (yesterday, to be exact), that I will aim to finish my copy of Kierkegaard's "Works of Love", which I also started a loooong time ago for self-inflicted brain torture. To preoccupy and hide my mind like a hermit in an old medieval library. LOL. Interestingly, this Ackerman book had a quote by some person (which I will Google after this) named Oliver Wendell Holmes that states "A mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimension." Fine. My mind is akin to slime or amorphous Play Doh.  

I did pick up some magazines lately in both hard copy and e-copies from the supermarket and public library. For entertainment purposes, of course. While the goal is to preoccupy the mind in an attempt to exercise it and comprehend the incomprehensible (I may not succeed, y'all), it's also still enjoyable to know about the mundane stuff including celebrity news or new recipes, etc. Of course the main focus should still be around my vocation, family, the essential 3-dimensional realm I live in. Yet still, I allow myself to indulge in some mind nostalgia and the happy thoughts that I've kept on file for myself. I recommend that. Positive vibes only, friends.

The holidays are coming up and I have leftover yarn from last year. There were a few projects I made that may be useful for those who don’t have enough warm clothing during the colder season. I’m going to donate those items and make additional hats or scarves from my unused yarn so I can achieve my “preoccupy the mind” objective and offset the self-centeredness by donating my output. Let’s challenge each other before this year ends and spend time doing something for others who require some kind of support.

Relearning the social norms

Have you recently felt unfamiliar with in-person interaction after over two years of virtual activities? Like you know people virtually but when you’re finally in a situation like a workshop where you have to see the same people in real life for the first time, you awkwardly physically navigate everyone else like a chicken in a barn bobbing your head, aware of other chickens but not knowing how to initiate some type of conversation? Then you take a moment to observe and everyone else is doing the same thing! It’s fascinating and nerve-wracking. A table of refreshments is always a welcome element in such events, except for moments when it’s blocked by people who would hang out there to share small talk. No choice but to share a few smiles and slither my way to obtain a cup of boxed coffee—to enjoy and use as a prop. You might think, “man, you are mega socially awkward!” You know what, not entirely, just because I finally said “hi” to someone and it led to a light conversation that catalyzed a nice follow-up email. My palms were sweaty the whole day, though. It was like I was rebooted today and all the software updates happened. Sympathetic nervous system on hyperactivity. Like a computer where the hardware is physically inanimate on the desk, but the matrix-like code is moving like a Star Wars opening crawl on 3x speed. 

Good thing it’s the weekend, thank God; and here I am trying to down-regulate by enjoying my can of carbonated water with bourgeois pretentiousness and blogging away to release all this…this mind garbage. I highly recommend some similar form of purging whether in private using the notes app on your smartphone, a diary/journal, or a dictation device (if people still use that). And if applicable (meaning if it’s not your livelihood), try to go off social media if you can. But if that’s your calm place, disregard my unsolicited suggestion. Cheers.

Update (we’ve been having a lot of these lately eh?): A colleague sent me a caring, concerned email later in the afternoon saying that my automatic reply stated that I was away in September and I meant for it to state that I was going to be off my desk for the day to be at the workshop. *facepalm* Ayayay. *pitiful laugh-cry*

windmills

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels: 

I felt the need to take a brief break and stretch this morning by going to the bookshelf to grab my copy of Josemaria Escriva's compilation of The Way, Furrow, The Forge that my late father gave me. You can also find it online here https://www.escrivaworks.org/. I know I shouldn't treat this book as some kind of Magic 8 ball, but it randomly opened to the chapter The Heart from the Furrow section. Passage 811 states:

"Someone has compared the heart to a windmill, moved by the wind of love and passion. Indeed, that windmill can grind wheat, barley or dried dung. It is up to us."

Then an earlier passage, number 807, states: 

"Carefully avoid anything that can hurt other people's hearts."

Further, within the section of The Forge there is the chapter on Struggle and number 149 and 151 state:

"Bring out your spirit of mortification in those nice touches of charity, eager to make the way of sanctity in the midst of the world attractive for everyone. Sometimes a smile can be the best proof of a spirit of penance." 

"You should make sure that wherever you are, there is that good humor--that cheerfulness--which is born of an interior life."

 Wherever you are and whatever your current mood, please smile even for a moment. Know that there will always be a reason to smile. Smile for achievements. Smile when you feel contented. Smile, though your heart is aching...you'll get by if you smile (as that song goes). I hope that this post provides some explanation to something. It certainly gave me food for thought and points for self-reflection.

Update: On the topic of a Magic 8 ball and seeking answers...the Oracle of Delphi comes to mind...Apollo...knowledge...the cosmos...dreams...fractal antennae. Hormonal imbalance? This was an intense cerebral journey, wasn't it? A la Professor X using the Cerebro. But we keep moving forward, as Walt Disney once stated…tough journey yet grateful. Tough—pain relief required. *pops open a virtual Tylenol*

blue and sentimental

 

“Blue and sentimental” is the title of the song that’s currently playing on the Spotify playlist called Jazz Relax. It’s the first time I’ve listened to this playlist and I thought that the title of the current piece sounds like a good blogpost theme. Blue—in a calm, relaxed sense versus feeling blue. Sentimental—selectively. Selectively sentimental. Aren’t we all? It’s fall and the temperature is dropping. Have yet to experience solid precipitation but it was foggy the past few days. I like this time of the year, because it’s very open to interpretation. One may think that the warm colours of transitioning foliage is mood boosting, yet another may feel a sense of dread whenever the sun sets and the fog accompanied by artificial night lights appear like the perfect setting for scary supernatural activity. For me, it’s the cool weather, warm clothing, and seasonal gastronomic fare and beverages. Count on me to romanticize anything I want to in my mind.

I quite enjoy this “away from the human and bot mosh pit of behavioural programming (reduced social media).” The expression: “like a moth to a flame” comes to mind. We’re all moths, aren’t we? The attractiveness of social media is around the desire for power in a variety of forms. Power without accountability. Power with plausible deniability. Power in affecting those who possess what we don’t have. Or power in attention and influence. Of course, we’ve reduced our definition of power in terms of a different currency—the currency of a comment, reply, thumbs up, views, etc. Though I think those have an actual monetary conversion after all.