Never Too Late

There is so much power in the following statement. I came across it searching for a quote related to planning, and it immediately stopped me. 


"It is never too late to be what you might have been."

                                                           - George Eliot

It just screams 'don't give up!'

It just washes away any thoughts of 'if only.'

It just energizes you and gives you hope.

It just makes you want to smile and say 'yeah!'

It just unlocks those parts of you that have been clamped shut for a long, long time.

It just cranks your brain and your creativity.

It just makes you want to get up and dance.

It just, it just, it just... 

It just is never too late.

My Day

Pleasant morning

Inti Zen

Fast flip through the paper

What’s a five letter word for…

Minimal email

Seems Greece has been downgraded

Fresh orange / grapefruit blast

Focus

Write and review notes

Peek at email

Set up meeting

Plan, strategically

Write

Attend to grumbling stomach

RSS The Atlantic’s Food Section

Add to April 1^st

Download Adobe Digital Editions

Focus

Organize notes in binder

Write

Keep writing

Make progress

Wash face

Upright row, bench press, calf raises

Upright row, bench press, calf raises

Upright row, bench press, calf raises

Grimace

Add protein

Wash off the day

April 1st Update on the 26th

Wanderlust

Maroulla was a gypsy.

She hailed from the land of the gods and was a direct descendant – Mother Earth was her grandmother. She called her YaYa.

Maroulla was a quiet child, given to reading and prone to gazing about. Her head was always in a book as she traveled the adventurous journey of words. The world was open to her, and she wandered.

As she got older, her parents wanted her to focus and find a profession. Find a spouse. Get married. Have children. Care for the elders. They were concerned.

“She’ll amount to nothing if she’s always lost in a book,” said her mother.

“What does she see of the world besides the black and white of the ink,” asked her father. “She doesn’t even know the color of the sky.”

Her parents had fallen out of the grace of the Olympian kingdom and didn’t have access to the will or the might of the sacred deities. So they watched and waited and coaxed. But she would have none of it.

She was a good child. Gentle with others, she studied and kept clean. Her mind was grounded but her heart trekked the globe.

Her family had lived among many of the peoples of the earth. She had experienced more than the utterance of ink, but it wasn’t enough and her soul had a thirst.

One day the west wind, Zephyrus, blew a thought to Maroulla – she should venture away from the land of the gods, discover what was beyond, put words together to capture it in thought, create her own bound copy of the unbound.

She was pleased.

The wind had whispered in her ear. Intoxicating. Provocative. Inspiring. She had been seduced. And, she was ready to wander.

She spent the evening in her room, going in circles. Thinking of where to go, whom to see, what to discover. She walked until she met herself in the center. She did it again. And again. And again. She wore a path in the dirt below her feet, and when she finally stepped back to look, she had created a beautiful pattern.

From nowhere and everywhere, the air touched her skin. A cool rush of knowing skimmed her. And she set off.

Her parents never understood the events of that night. When they looked in her room the next day, all they found was a meander on the floor. And a book, blank in 100 pages except the one which stated – all who wander are not lost.

My Last Supper

A month or so ago, I purchased a book by Melanie Dunea titled My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals. It’s a fun read.

Dunea asked each chef a handful of questions about how they would spend their last meal, where, with whom, and what – as in what would be on the menu. As I’ve been reading these entries, I’ve been contemplating a dinner party fashioned after this, and as a result, my own last supper. I decided to answer in a quick, brainstorming manner recognizing that otherwise I would get hung up. Here’s mine. What about you? What would be your last supper?

What is the setting?

On the sand in Perea, just outside of Thessaloniki on the other side of Kalamaria, with the water just a few feet away. It would be one long table with white linens. Everyone would be barefoot.

Would there be music?

Since we’re imagining, all things are possible. Maria Callas would sing live and there would be a sampling of Greek music performed by the likes of Marinella, Kazantzidis, Alexiou, Parios, Vissi, etc. It would be a long evening, the Gypsy Kings would also perform, and then we’d plug in my iPod and listen to the International playlist. Perhaps in the final hour, I’d blast out Echo and the Bunnymen and Under the Milky Way by The Church.

What would be on the menu?

The meal would consist of a variety of small plates, just enough to taste. A beet salad like the one we prepare at home with frequency. Horiatiki (Greek village salad). Pastitsio. Pita. Lots of feta from Epirus. Tzatziki. Onion rings. Really good French fries. Jalapenos, fresh – I eat them with everything. A variety of fresh steamed vegetables in season. Fruity olive oil. Crusty bread. Cheeses. Fruit. Nuts. Good wine.

We would end the evening with good dark chocolate and some salty potato chips as we stood ankle deep in the water under the moonlight.

Who would be my dining companions?

My husband and close friends and family. My father. Vicky. Judie. Kilby. Richard. Susan. Maria. Jess. Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Lawrence Durrell. Nikos Kazantzakis. Jesus Christ. Buddha. Quite the assortment. I’d like it to be a big crowd, bigger than what I’ve listed, and make it a celebration. I envision a table as long as those at Outstanding in the Field events.

Who would cook?

I would don my apron and invite others to assist.

Fun exercise.

Kali Orexi and Bon Appetit!

60 Landscapes: For My Love

I recently spent a marathon eight hours painting small watercolor landscapes as a birthday gift. Total number: 60. Some were really good, others not so. Oh, but what fun. It was my first real experience with watercolors, and I truly enjoyed myself. Here's a sampling of photos:

What They Said

Here's a smattering of quotes that I've posted on Twitter over the past month. Which one's your favorite?

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity. – Voltaire

The onion is the truffle of the poor. – Robert J. Courtine

Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed. – Mark Twain

The world belongs to the enthusiastic. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Normally, we do not so much look at things as overlook them. – Alan Watts

The reverse side also has a reverse side. – Japanese proverb

If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live. – Lin Yutang

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. – Andre Gide

Only that in you which is me can hear what I'm saying. – Baba Ram Dass

No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place. – Zen proverb

Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights. – Georg Hegel

The future influences the present just as much as the past. – Nietzche

Even a clock that doesn't work is right twice a day. – Polish proverb

The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. – Edward R Murrow

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth. – Ludwig Borne

There's more to truth than just the facts. – Author unknown

Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple. – Dr. Seuss

We become aware of the void as we fill it. – Antonio Porchia

Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light? – Maurice Freehill

Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet. – Roger Miller

It's better to know some of the questions than all of the answers. – James Thurber

The obstacle is the path. – Zen proverb

If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one. – Russian proverb

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome. – William James

To learn something new, take the path you took yesterday. – John Burroughs

When the student is ready, the master appears. – Buddhist proverb

My life has a superb cast but I can't figure out the plot. – Ashleigh Brilliant

Everything being a constant carnival, there is no carnival left. – Victor Hugo

Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. – Kierkegaard

The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression. – WEB DuBois

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. – Dr. Seuss

April 1st: Year Two

Today is the one year anniversary of the April 1st Project. I've had a great deal of fun with this journal and see that it is beginning to morph from being a catalog of things that I come across to a true journal that has my perspective and thoughts attached. To celebrate this fun milestone, I've attached some new images out of the journal.