fun learning

            Curiosity motivates us to learn, encouragement inspires us to thrive.  If I were independently wealthy I would take classes all the time.  But - and here's the caveat - it's got to be fun.  More so than the all-season gray skies in Belgium, I left Brussels because I was fed up with the dusty post secondary academic system that seeped all the way into creative fields like my design studies.  I felt inhibited and put down, instead of motivated and inspired.  That's how I landed on the shores of this country where I found a much more open learning environment (I'll leave the financial picture out of the conversation because that's a whole other discussion).

            I find that in general college education here encourages inquisitiveness, individualism, creative thinking and doing, critical-analytical thinking, and is practically oriented.   Many institutions have beautiful facilities with new buildings, great lab and studio spaces, well designed sports and communal facilities, all of which foster a positive learning environment.  I have experienced encouraging, nurturing, personal relationships with professors who work with, not above, the students - a totally different atmosphere than I knew from Europe where I encountered condescending professors on pedestals assured of their superiority.

            A Parisian friend said to me a while ago that France's dusty, staid, academic environment discourages exploring and voicing novel theories and inhibits innovation in research.  The best learning environments foster an inquisitiveness of seeing the world through children's eyes, full of wonderment and curiosity and of "what if?".  I love learning.

unslumping yourself

             Inspiration is what renews my creativity and energy, and refreshes my enthusiasm for life.  Inspiration can come from people, things I experience, things I read, things I see, do, taste, hear, even feel - anything that stimulates my senses in a positive way, the more positive, the more inspiring end energizing. 

            Every once in a while it is necessary to break out of our day-to-day routine and make it a point to experience something new.  Routine has its merits - see a previous blog post on that - but all routine and no fun and stimulus makes us bored and boring, and potentially even depressed. 

            What inspires you?  Last spring I wrote about going on an adventure.  I get good energy and a kick in the mind from conversations with people - when my voice becomes loud, as my husband points out, it means I am passionate about what I'm talking about.  Exhilaration can come from overcoming our comfort zone and succeeding beyond our initial expectations.   Sparkling eyes are a sign of good energy, as are big smiles or laughs - that's when a person is inspired and inspiring.  Do you have a trick for getting out of a mental slump and boosting your enthusiasm for the zest of life?

design goes mainstream

     Designer-this and designer-that is everywhere.  We want our stuff to look good besides being functional.    While Walmart sells on price and functionality alone, Ikea and Target have added beauty to the mix with great success - design for less, design for the masses, and that's a great thing.   

            Designer-everything has entered the main stream.   Pretty things make our surroundings more pleasant, color adds joy, and well designed items take it even a notch up from there.   Design is aesthetics with intent and it adds sophistication.  We love Bauhaus style, many people know the Mies and Barcelona chairs, industrial designer is a sought after job. 

            From a cultural perspective we enjoy material abundance way beyond the bare necessities and find it no longer sufficient to buy a lamp that lights the room, a coaster that prevents the tablecloth from scorching, or plain disposable paper cups.  Our senses have become more finely tuned and the pervasiveness of good design is astonishing.   How do you feel about design?  Superfluous or adds to the quality of your life?

the best art

           Walls without pictures are naked.  Counters, consoles, and bookcases without tchochtkes are barren.    Visual art pulls a place, whether home or office, together and gives it that unique touch.  Because I am not a visual artist myself I need other people's art in my life.

            Art adds color, art adds interest, art adds meaning, art adds creativity.  Art doesn't have to be expensive, and it sure doesn't have to be from someone famous.  As a matter of fact I like to know the people whose art I hang up or display, and I like to know their stories - I get more meaning out of that than I would from an expensive piece whose maker I don't know. 

            I have saved the best of my children's art from their elementary school years and framed it. A friend's young son made a piece of book art which I cherish and display together with some super heavy candle sticks a friend made from farm implements and a tree study we got from a painter friend.  And I love my daughter's African inspired gazelle head made from a plastic gallon jug.  They are all beautiful pieces that make the room around them look more special, and each piece has a story.  This type of art surrounds me with beauty and meaning.

heavenly crunch

           What is it about crunchiness of all food textures that makes it so satisfying?  It's easy to eat a whole bag of potato chips (and then wonder how you did it).  Crunch is so satisfying under my teeth and hearing the crunch in my ears while I eat is addictive.  I want to feel and hear and experience it over and over and over.  I don't seem to get tired of the experience.

            Food texture and sensation is important, eating all mush is just not interesting.  There is chunky (as in roasted root vegetables or stew), there is chewy (as in meat or seitan), there is shredded (as in a raw carrot salad), there is dense (as in cooked eggs or fish or cheese), there is fluffy (as in sponge cake or some breads), there is granular (as in quinoa or rice), there is silky and smooth (as in pudding or silken tofu), there is powdery (as in different kinds of flour or powdered sugar), there is leafy (as in green vegetables), there is crispy (as in a cold fresh apple).  But crunchy is best I find. 

           Crunchy foods involve our sense of hearing in addition to our senses of taste and feeling.  Maybe that is the difference - heightened sensation.   We live for experiences.  Other than perhaps crispiness none of the other textures produce a sound.  As a kid I used to love KitKat and Crunch bars and brittle, all because of the crunch factor - now I find them too sweet.  I have been tempted to buy a food dehydrator just to make crunchy vegetable chips.  Then I can crunch away in a healthy way. 

tangoing from the heart

             A few weeks ago my husband and I started taking beginner lessons in Argentine tango - the place is only ten minutes from our house and the lessons happen to be free - major incentives - although we have dabbled in ballroom dancing since before we had kids (always on and off, always at the glorified beginner level).

            But tango seems different, less mechanical and structured than conventional ballroom dancing, and more intuitive and sensual.  For one there is that sliding, slithering tango walk - the most basic tangoing might actually simply entail slide-walking to tango music.  Tango requires dropping from the head into the heart, and isn't that the topic of our times?  Tango teaches trust because the follower always moves backwards.  As a matter of fact some of the practice exercises were done with closed eyes.   More so than conventional ballroom dancing (at least it seems so from my beginner perspective), tango becomes a complete merging of self, music, and partner, an in-the-moment moving, feeling, trusting, responding to your partner - no anticipation, just being in the now.

            Tango, and ballroom dancing in general, is good for your health.  It helps your balance and coordination, moving to music is joyful, tango, in particular, is also very sensual, it requires and trains trust, it's great exercise that's a lot more fun than running on a treadmill, you can do it 'til the day you die, and as a social activity connects you with people.  As an exercise in togetherness, partnership, and trusting it's a perfect hobby for our times. 

            We need to play more, we need to dance more, we need to enjoy life more.

first coffee, first walk

           On Sunday, first day of the new year, we had fun marveling at all the firsts we experienced - first cup of tea of the new year, first breakfast of the new year, first walk of the new year, and on and on.  It was fun and uplifting.  My husband mused about how exciting life would be if we looked at everything we do as a "first," with the sense of wonderment and freshness the new year brings. 

            That's the secret of living in the moment!  There is always a new day, a new month, a new afternoon, to keep playing this game endlessly. Try it.

did you take a big bite?

             Our current perception of time, cut up into segments that start over after each cycle, let's us take stock and reboot to begin fresh.  2016 is winding down with the passing of two big stars, Carrie Fisher and George Michael.  Neither of them was very old.   But a wise soul said to me once not to judge a life by its length but by its meaning.

            Here, then, are two messages to take away as this year wanes.  Take stock and look back.  What significance did this year have for you?  What did you learn?  What did you accomplish?  What influence have you had on those around you?  Did you give?  Did you take?  Have you gained depth?  Compassion?   What were the big moments this year for you personally?  How do they fit into the bigger scheme of the you-theme?  My biggest accomplishment this year was the completion of my book - finally.  It will be out this winter.

            The message that goes hand in hand with the first one is to live big, to live life to its fullest - my mother-in-law called it taking a big bite out of life.  You can't go back and fix things in the past.  But you can shift your mindset right now and make the next moment, and the next day or month or year, significant.  Take a big bite out of life today, and this coming year.  Make it meaningful, for yourself and others, through your actions.

Happy ChristmaHanukkah

            Finding canny significances in events and things - some call it synchronicity - makes life more meaningful, and can send a strong message. 

            This year Christmas Eve and the first day of Hanukkah fall on the same day.  Why not take this convergence as an opportunity to celebrate inclusiveness and togetherness?  We are stronger together than fragmented into splinter groups. Instead of lighting candles for Christmas, or lighting candles for Hanukkah, why not light candles for peace, for happiness, for compassion, for inclusiveness, for understanding, for awareness, for human rights this year?  May light prevail over darkness, and may love prevail over anger and hatred.  Wishing all a happy ChristmaHanukkah.

time for Besinnlichkeit

             In German culture, Christmas, and the Advent weeks prior, is a time of Besinnlichkeit, which, like Gemütlichkeit (see earlier blog post on that), is a term that can't quite be translated directly, only approached through approximate synonyms and a description.

            American Christmas is "bright" and "merry," a time for joyful Christmas parties and conviviality.  The Christmas music reflects that - think of Here Comes Santa Claus, or A Holly Jolly Christmas.  German Christmas is reflective in flavor and indicative of the cold, dark time of year when we hibernate and go inward.   The German Christmas spirit also expresses the holiness of the celebration.  Germans get together for Advent coffee with homemade Christmas cookies and Stollen while listening to Christmas music and lighting the candles on their Advent wreaths; they go to Christmas concerts and Christmas markets; and the kids sit together over Christmas crafts (well, maybe no longer, but we did anyway, when we were young).  Many German Christmas songs are hundreds of years old and sound a lot more "churchy," solemn, mystical, and reflective.

            It's good to intersperse our hectic technology-infused lives with times of slowing down.   Besinnlichkeit is a combination of introspection and reflection, of pensiveness and going inward, of centering and grounding, of connecting with the spiritual.    To me, Christmas has always been somewhat mystical, and Besinnlichkeit let's me tap back into that enchanted world of childhood magic.