365 Inspirations—281: Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

Gluten-free dark chocolate cupcake with raspberry frosting

"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going to fast—you also miss the sense of where you are going and why."—Eddie Cantor

I don't believe the weather person in Seattle. The forecast calls for rain, rain, rain,...but we have sun!

And who coined the expression 'You can't have your cake and eat it too'?

Of course you can have your cake and eat it too, and you shouldn't feel guilty about it. Like my husband always says, "If you can't enjoy life, then what's the point?"

It's not that I believe life should be just one BIG pleasure trip where you can do and eat whatever you want, whenever you want. Of course work or even hard work is part of that equation, but who says you can't enjoy work? Or even hard work?

If it's work you enjoy, you get to have your cake and eat it too!

So are you doing what you love? Are you enjoying your moments?

We don't know how many moments we get, so we might as well make the most of them.

Today, despite fretting about the classwork and grading that I have for my classes today, I felt the need to get outside in the fall air and see how much the leaves had changed color since last time I was out.

My husband and I headed out to Greenlake and did a 3-mile walk, our favorite. The leaves had in fact changed color quite a bit and they were stunning.

We started out with rain and ended with bright sun!

It was around 12pm when we started our walk and suddenly we were hungry. We stopped off at Mio Sushi right across from Greenlake and had a delicious bento box lunch. I had the miso salmon and California roll combo. It was delicious.

Next to Mio Suchi is a place called Cake Envy. They do wedding and other event cakes, but they also make cupcakes daily. I'd never tried it and I was curious, so we decided to split one cupcake and a mocha for our dessert. We had the gluten free dark chocolate cupcake with raspberry frosting. I was surprised at how rich and moist the cupcake was for being gluten free!

So now it's about 3pm, and it's time to go to work. I teach ESL from 5:30-9:40pm. I like my job and love my students this quarter. I feel lucky that I get to enjoy my day and enjoy my students and classes!

Do you believe you can have your cake and eat it too? Do you take time to enjoy your life?

365 Inspirations—211: Celebrate Life

"A real celebrity is a person who celebrates life."—Seong Yoon Lee

Today, as I was walking around Greenlake with my husband, the words above sprang from his lips and they struck me and made me say, "Yes!"

The sun was sparkling on the lake, there was a slight breeze, people were out and about on rollerblades, skateboards, bicycles, boats, and feet. It seemed like everyone was out celebrating the day. It made me think: Look at all these celebrities!

We spend so much time focusing on celebrities (the other ones) and what they are doing, who they married, what their children look like, who said this and who said that, etc. that we forget to be celebrities ourselves. We forget to celebrate the life we have right in front of us.

Forget the news. Is it really so important to know about the every move of the Prince and Princess of Wales and their new baby? Do we really need to read about another mass murderer? 

I say, "Celebrate this very life you have right in front of you. You are a celebrity worthy of celebration."

Celebrate the small things: the sun, a nice lunch, a roof over you head, a friend, a loved one, air to breathe.

And celebrate the BIG things: a marriage, a new baby, a new job, a car, a trip....whatever it is!

Today I celebrated life with a walk around Greenlake with my husband and lunch out at a Mexican restaurant. I was celebrating the fact that I just received copies of the Croatian edition of my book from my agent!

Croatian edition of my book, Lessons from the Monk I Married

Tonight I'm going to celebrate more. A friend who plays violin in the orchestra gave me two free tickets to see the opera Siegfried. I'm bringing another friend who has never been to the opera before. Celebrate life and don't forget to share it too!

Do you take time to celebrate life and share it with others too?

365 Lessons-Lessons 205: Free Your Inner Child

"Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them."—Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943 
 

Another post from my 365 Lessons from 2010. I like this one very much. Here it is:

Floating, swimming, frolicking in the woods, eating cupcakes with stars on them, swinging on the swings even though there are only children on the swings with their mothers or fathers pushing them. What made us become serious adults who say, "Oh, I'm too old for that." Is there an age limit to floating, swimming, frolicking in the woods, eating cupcakes or swinging on swings? When given the chance, I don't hesitate to do any of these.

When you let your inner child out, the one inside you that liked to play and was always game for anything new, you free yourself. The picture of me on the swings was at my best friend's twins second birthday. All the kids were running all over the place with cake smeared across their faces. They climbed ladders, slid down slides, played in the sand box, walked over the rope bridge, but not me. I made a bee line for the swings.

I have so many memories of being on swings when I was young. I remember moving my legs forward and back, forward and back to try and get as high as possible. Sometimes I got so high that the poles supporting the swing seemed to come out of the ground. A rush of fear would spread throughout my body for an instant as I thought, "What if I break the swing?" and then I'd let go and close my eyes, let the swing rock me back and forth and feel the wind blow my hair back and touch my cheeks and nose. There's something soothing about the rocking motion of a swing. I'm sure it comes from the time when I was a baby and was soothed in this fashion by my parents. Once the swing would start to slow down, I'd jump out onto the sawdust.

Yesterday, when I arrived at my parent's lake house in Washington, I didn't hesitate to go for a swim. I didn't care if the water was warm or cold. I was going in. I don't think my family believed me and followed me down to the dock. I walked down the ladder and found the water to be surprisingly warm. Once in the water, I tread water and blew bubbles with my lips just like when I was a kid.


I also ventured off on my own around the lake. I walked slowly looking at all the houses and trees along the way. I heard young girls scream on a inner tube out on the lake. I caught a glimpse of them high up on the road through the trees. Their laughter was contagious and I couldn't help but laugh myself at the good time they seemed to be having. While walking I felt so happy and free I decided to take my self portrait. I wanted to remember my feeling.



Today my sister and her kids arrived for my father's birthday party. I was sorry I couldn't stay longer, but I needed to make it back to Seattle. They made chocolate cupcakes with different sprinkles on them. My dad got the one with dinosaurs because, well, I guess he's getting up there in age, but he is still young at heart. He was very pleased, however, that his cupcake only had one candle. He said, "Wow, look, I'm one!" and then blew it out.


My cupcake had stars on it. I licked the frosting and ate the whole thing in about four bites. After our cupcake eating session, I sat for a little while longer with my sister and family outside on the deck and we told stories about when we were young. We have so many.

It's always great to reminisce, but instead of just remembering all the fun times I had when I was a kid, I try to keep that part of me alive. I want to keep the flame burning. There's an innocence to the way children are. Often times I feel it's a shame that the child in us gets bottled up once we become adults. There's a tendency to become reserved and fearful of doing anything that might embarrass us. When I let my inner child out, I find my spark for life. It keeps things exciting, spontaneous and fun!

Do you let your inner child out to play? When was the last time you did something spontaneous and fun?