weekend in the kitchen

What are you up to this weekend?  I’ve spent a bit of time in the kitchen, whipping up a yummy vegan french toast from a recipe over at Healthy Vegan Recipes that uses coconut milk and banana. The flavors are really tasty together, and I opted to top mine with thinly sliced strawberries rather than maple syrup – the toast was so yummy on it’s own that the berries made the perfect compliment. You can download the free recipe for yourself, just click here.

Last night I also tried out a chocolate chip peanut cookie recipe from the delightful blog, Healthy Happy Life. Just as the recipe boasts, these cookies are super easy to make and oh so perfect. I didn’t have any crunchy peanut butter on hand, or peanuts for that matter, but the cookies turned out great without them.  I ended up baking only a handful of the cookies last night, and froze the remainder of the dough in ready-to-bake balls. You can find that recipe by clicking here.

What are you up to this weekend?

destination inspiration

photo via central park dot com

Sometimes when you’re in need of a shot of inspiration, a change of scenery can do just the trick. Your checking account not equipped for last minute tickets to Shangri La? Not a problem. The destination doesn’t need to be exotic, or mythical to inspire you out of a blue mood or a productivity funk.

One of my favorite destinations when I’m desperate for a little spring in my step is a stroll around one of my favorite local parks, particularly in the evening. The fresh air (or, as fresh as Boston will allow) and chance to move my body is invigorating and gets the blood flowing. Watching the landscape change as the sun sets casts everything in a new light, and even the most familiar landmarks become new mysteries to unfold. Fountains and statues stand majestically lit from the the streetlights below, and the hushed tones of the sparse night-time crowd seem to quiet even the most obnoxious, attention sucking brain chatter.

What destination, near or far, inspires you out of a creative funk, an energetic black-hole, or a negative mindset? Make a list for the next time you’re in need of an inspiring change of pace. A few of mine include…

A visit to my favorite bookstore – browsing the shelves always reminds me of all the things I want to learn, and motivates me to get started

A trip to the beach – there’s nothing like experiencing the ocean to leave you pleasantly exhausted and reminded of the beauty of nature

Head to a nearby outdoor plaza – people watching can be just as inspiring as less-human landscapes, bonus points for hearing foreign languages

thought of the day: compassion

I’ve been thinking a lot about compassion lately, and what a difference practicing compassion can make in our lives. According to Webster, compassion is sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress, together with a desire to alleviate it. A pretty dense definition, but it certainly doesn’t have to be as heavy as it sounds. To me, compassion is being understanding of the situation of another, and finding ways to improve that situation. As active a definition as that may sound, you’re not expected to be endlessly bending over backwards for others, your sole mission to make everyone else’s life better than even your own. But, whether you like it or not, we have to interact with countless people and creatures throughout our lives – both directly and indirectly – and we have the choice to either unconsciously drift through those interactions or to approach them compassionately.

So, what do I mean by that. Think of an interaction you had recently, perhaps with a colleague, partner, neighbor, or even a stranger, that left a bad taste in your mouth. Perhaps you got into a tiff with your spouse over breakfast, or blew off a coworker asking for help with a project you dismissed as “not your problem”. How different could that interaction have gone if you had been open to seeing the situation from the other party’s perspective, and really considered it? Would your response to them have been different? Your tone of voice or body language changed? What about the outcome of your time together, how might that have been improved for both of you?

Compassion doesn’t mean trading your own perspective, and priorities, for anothers, but rather recognizing a new perspective, and set of priorities, that encompasses you both. Compassion means breaking the barrier between an “us against them” worldview to “we’re all in this together”. It might sound a little idealistic or even new agey, but consider it.

It’s easy to bring more compassion to your life, and there are hundreds of ways to do it without following in the footsteps of Mother Theresa (although that may be a worthy pursuit for some). You can practice compassion by truly listening to others, hearing what they’re communicating, and considering their perspective before you take action. You can practice compassion with your dollar by supporting fair trade and fair wage commerce, recognizing that far too many companies contribute to sweat-shop working conditions and considering the laborers who are forced into dangerous factories and poverty to keep the corporation in business. You can practice compassion with your fork by being aware of the suffering animals undergo in the production of meat, dairy, and egg products, and opting for delicious plant-based fare instead. Perhaps most importantly, you can practice compassion with yourself by recognizing that while things may not be exactly as you’d hoped for, you are doing your best and continually taking steps in the right direction.

playlist artist

I’ve always enjoyed music. Not loved it in an obsessive way that leaves me cut-off from the outside world, deaf behind a pair of headphones. Not knowledgable about it in a way that enables me to discuss obscure post-punk tracks with the hipsters at the bar. Just enjoyed, in a way that lets me recognize the beauty of a well constructed playlist. So I’ve decided to start making playlists, for all occasions. Here’s a start; a Sunday evening relaxing, reflective, and seductive soundtrack for your post True Blood enjoyment…

closet contentment

What’s preventing you from doing something amazing, right now? What’s keeping you from jumping out of bed having the most perfect day you could imagine? Okay there are probably plenty of perfectly valid reasons why we’re all not having the best day ever, taking on incredible challenges and setting out on our own unique adventure (funding likely near the top of that list). But when it boils down to it there’s a lot of junk we have to deal with in day-to-day life that makes it seem impossible to take on anything new and exciting.

Oftentimes my reasons for not choosing to do something memorable and spontaneous are so banal they make me cringe. “Oh, no”, I’d think, “I can’t possibly enjoy my weekend and plan something fun; I have to do the laundry and clean the dishes, go to the grocery, check on my finances, buy more ink for that pen…”.   Yet as snore-inducing as these excuses are, they are a reality that any of us short of a mind-reading personal assistant have to deal with. By the time I’ve even made my to do list I’m thinking of how utterly exhausted I’ll be when the items have been slashed off, the thought of branching out and doing something I really want just sounds like added pressure. And so goes the monotonous cycle of life for many people.

I’ve decided that cycle is one I will no longer be participating in. Yes, there’s something to be said for regularity. For relaxing weekends at home, for catching up on chores, and for being generally comfortable. In fact, for many people that is a goal in and of itself, and I can respect that. For me, for now, that is not my goal. But unfortunately, that junk associated with day-to-day living is still very much a reality. So I’ve decided to streamline my “general life crap” – make it all into a quick, painless process that sucks less time out of my days and less energy out of my being.

What with it being a rainy day here in Boston, I chose to take on my number 1 time-sucking, patience-zapping enemy: my closet. I know I’m not the only one who’s wasted valuable hours trotting from the closet to the mirror and back again, trolling for an outfit worthy of seeing the light of day. Having spent too many frustrating mornings flinging hangers this way and that, I’ve determined it’s not worth the stress. It dawned on me that if I got my closet under control and organized in a way that made getting dressed for any occasion more seamless, perhaps I’d be more willing to say yes to last-minute invites (knowing a perfect frock is at my fingertips, ready to go).

So I got started. Here’s what enemy #1 looked like pre-battle:

As you can see, it was pretty disastrous. All the clothing shoved up at the top was hopelessly wrinkled and un-wearable. The hangers kept some items easy-to-find, which meant I was only really wearing the same handful of outfits I could easily spot. So I got to work, and took everything out. With a movie playing in the background, I sorted every item by category (dresses, skirts, jeans, tees…) and dragged out the ol’ iron and ironing board. Nothing went back in the closet until it was in wearable order.

And the final product:

I made more space for what I needed by moving bulky coats to the hall closet. A few seasonal items got tucked into my suitcase.  I decided to not only hang up individual pieces of clothing, but to organize actual outfits together. I ended up with 14 outfits put together and ready to wear… which to me means 2 weeks free from clothing stress, and 2 weeks free from the tired excuse of “I don’t have anything to wear”. Besides, now that the grand cleaning has been done, I have a solid system to use moving forward that makes getting dressed and out the door a snap.

What general life crap causes you the most annoyance, distress, or time? Could you put a system in place to make dealing with it less annoying, distressing, or timely? Why not give it a try – you have so much to gain and nothing to lose.

a fresh start

I turned 23 recently and a new blog was the only gift that seemed to fit bill. So, here it is. I used to write over at apartment 303 (go ahead! click the link! there’s lots of great material still living over there!) and stopped because it wasn’t feeling right and I needed to be melodramatic and have time to “find myself” and “figure things out” and generally be whiny and lazy. And yes, it was as self indulgent as it sounds in the kind of way that leaves you feeling hungover on introspection like it were tequila… except instead of waking up next to a stranger wearing nothing but a sombrero, desperate for ride home and some alka-seltzer, you wake up amid a pile of self-help books and Oprah’s favorite things, desperate for answers and social interaction.

During that period, however, I heard someone say that life is not about finding oneself, but about creating oneself. Maybe it’s just because I wasn’t very successful at finding my own self and was ready for an excuse to stop searching, but this message stuck with me. It makes sense too. Given that – unless you truly live under a rock – life is constant change, how could we ever expect to “find” such a moving target? Besides, the idea of creating oneself sounds much more fun. This blog is all about creation and deciding to start living and not let a job, a family, a location, a bad hair day, a stroke of unfortunate luck… anything, but ourselves, dictate who we are. No excuses. So, who are you going to create?