Culinary art

“Eating is a necessity, but cooking is an art”, and like any profession, hobby or job even, no-one is born great at it, you learn by doing.

Jonathan wanted to be a chef since he saw his grandmother use a whisk to prepare his favourite cookie dough. Until his early teenage years, he never really questioned where this sublimely tasting mixture came from. But once he saw how it was prepared, he wanted to learn the secret so he could “always have abundance”. That’s the problem with us humans: we always want more.

He slowly found that cooking relaxed and calmed him. It was a mindful act that produced something worthwhile in the end, and he loved the compliments he received for the end produce.

He discovered that he could make his food as healthy, as sweet, as spicy, as exotic and as imaginative as he liked. Because in his kitchen, he was in charge. What was most exciting about it all, is that, sometimes, even food had an image, a memory, a story to associate with it. And that was one additional thing that brought people together.

Jonathan became a chef. And he realised that the secret ingredient to every recipe, just like in life, was to do whatever you did with love and passion.

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Remorse in a ‘hello’

©J Hardy Carroll

Aaron had left abruptly, slamming the door as he went. Vanessa had begun shrieking again. She was upset and the fighting had drained her. He couldn’t handle it. Leaving was what he knew how to do best. Pretending nothing happened and hoping the black clouds would soon disappear restoring their relationship to the rainbows.

Vanessa knew it took effort and sacrifices. From both sides. Every good relationship, like a dance, required two equal partners going the same way. It was hard, but nothing good came easy.

He contemplated, then lifted the phone and dialled. Her ‘hello’ was filled with tears.

 

Also part of Friday Fictioneers

A blink in time

When you start counting your past in two-digit numbered-years, you know you’ve lived a lot. But you never cease to be amazed by how rapidly time really rushes by. It’s only when you think of what has been that you begin to realise the magnitude of the things you’ve experienced and all the things you’ve managed to do and survive. Yet you’ll always sadden at the thought that many of those things and people that accompanied you in your earlier years don’t exist anymore. And you tremble at the frightening thought that the same fate awaits you sometime in your future. All you can hope is that it will be far away.

As children we believe that the people around as are immortal. And that our surroundings will endure forever, surviving every disaster, natural or manmade. It is as we grow up that this innocence and lack of realism is lost. As is our ability to dream.

We live in a world that is both terrifying and wonderful. One in which time passes by so fast that if you blink you’ll miss the moments you have to live.

Our lives are but a swish in this vast universe and all we can do is take as much out of them as we possible can. Make a reality out of your dreams; do the things that scare you but will make you stronger; spend more time with the people you love; demonstrate your appreciation and gratitude to those that matter; and help those that can’t help themselves. A life well-lived is one that is full to the brim with experiences, with as least regrets as possible, with memories you cherish, and with the satisfaction that you took advantage to the utmost of all the time that was given to you.

“If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives” – Lemony Snicket

 

Waking a sleeping fire

There are some feelings, which are dormant until they are sparked into life. Like jealousy and fear. You don’t realise they are so intense until they’re awake. Because then it feels that you’ve set a match on fire inside your veins.

It is said no to “do unto others what you don’t want others to do unto you”. To treat people as you would like to be treated, because even the nicest people have their limits. And we are raised to understand how people of different classes, backgrounds or even gender are so unlike yet so similar.

Women, for example, want men to cherish them as special and exclusive, just as men want their girl to bedazzle everyone but have eyes only for them. But at various points in time, each need to enter each other’s shoes to understand and to consider how they would act had they been on the other side.

Trust, just as love, is a two-way street. And it is earned through time, experience and mutual respect. Trust is what you convince others to be true, it is what allays their fears and combats the dragons that rise when one part of the pair is away. Love is how you show you care, so much that it is reciprocated.

And to harmonise it all into a healthy relationship requires that you also rid of any signs of selfishness that infect the invisible chain that binds a couple. It entails that communication is so strong that their eyes can speak straight to their heart. It needs love to roar louder than the demons.

All it really takes is a small act of kindness once in a while that will go a long way. One that will put the demons asleep and waken the heart. Because remember, the heart is a tiny organ that, however, sustains your entire being and it is on this that your very existence relies.

 

Also part of Daily Prompt: Dormant

Also part of Daily Prompt: Harmonize

The sweet lure

It was used as an enticement to lure her into doing the things she should when she was little. To eat all her food, to take a bath, to clean her room, sometimes even to go to school or take something to her aunt’s down the street. A lollipop of any form or taste was her temptation. Antonia could be drawn into doing almost anything if promised candy on a stick.

When she grew older though, the lollipops became less frequent. She had gained a sense of responsibility and obligation and didn’t really need a lure to do the things she knew she should. But at holidays and big events, she would always feel the urge to have one – to feel its stickiness on her fingers and its sweetness on her tongue. It was something she had associated with her childhood and with the innocence that came with it. And it was this that would accompany her own children when time came. It was a sweet lure that would progressively teach them to act without its necessity. Because everyone needs an incentive at first. And a sugary treat is something few can refuse.

 

Also part of Daily Prompt: Lollipop

The simplest of things, the greatest of impacts

It is common logic that if you don’t show appreciation to the persons who deserve it, they’ll learn to stop doing those things that help you out, that make your life easier. Because to be honest, a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.

Like Margaret Cousins said, “Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary”.

Being told you matter, you’re appreciated, respected even, loved, is among the simplest yet most uplifting things you can hear.

It’s important to demonstrate you care, because people’s lives are based on – and often filled with – emotions. It’s how we feel alive. How we feel we matter. How we know that what we do has an impact and makes a difference. Being shown that you are valued is what will keep you going.

It doesn’t take much. It’s usually just a few words, a simple action, the smallest of deeds. But to the receiver, it means the world.

Helping the economy

There is a saying that “men go shopping to get want they want; women go shopping to find out what they want”. In fact, females don’t have a very favourable reputation when it comes to shopping. Because put plainly, women can shop all the time, regardless of how much money they (don’t have) and they can never have enough of anything, especially shoes and clothes.

Men supposedly also have a special characteristic – that of being able to constrain themselves. But women…well, when they go shopping, it is very very easy to get carried away. And they more often than not do.

With the advent of online shopping, moreover, it has become all the more easier to get overexcited and buy more things that you need or sometimes can even afford.

Shopping for women has become a form of therapy; something men cannot understand. And this is where the gender differences become more apparent. Because it all comes down to the fact that women are excited to receive something new, even if they spend half their paycheck to get it. And despite visiting numerous stores in search of that perfect – affordable, if possible – item, they will always return to the one they saw first that may have a three-digit price tag, simply because it is a well-known fact that it is the first-view-first-click that will please you the most.

Yes, women are weird. Maybe a bit high-maintenance at times. And very often insane. But they are the ones that fill this world with sunshine. Because no man ever complained when the woman standing next to him looks glamorous wearing all the things she just spent her (or his) wage on

The magic candelabra

©Janet Webb

It was a present from her aunt who always had an aura of mystery surrounding her. She used to dress in sparkles, long, airy dresses and dangling earrings. When she was young, Janet believed her aunt was a descendant of a gypsy witch. But a bit more elegant.

The candelabra decorated her windowsill ever since she moved into her own house. And she believed that it brought with it some of her aunt’s magic. It was in there that she found love and got married, got a promotion, and even won the lottery. It couldn’t have been a simple coincidence.

 

Also part of Friday Fictioneers

The de-stressing office objects

©Claire Sheldon

She had left it on his desk, next to a cup of pens and the small stuffed penguin he had won for her at the fair. It was a plastic cup overfilled with paperclips, which he found was useless. Simply a few would suffice, he kept telling her.

But she wouldn’t throw any away.

When she became too stressed or entered her over-thinking period, she would pour them out of the cup and lay them on the table, playing around with shapes and forms. It would de-stress her and time would pass, distracting her and calming her down. Simple. Vital.

 

Also part of Friday Fictioneers

Complaining, whining, nagging

We tend to complain. A lot. And the ‘we’ goes to the human species. Because no other animal has the tendency to complain, whine or nag as much as we do.

We often complain so much because we’re too afraid to act. We fear that we might not be able to change circumstances, that there is nothing we can do to make things better. We complain because we don’t believe enough in our own strength and capabilities.

Then again, we too often complain because we feel we deserve better.

We nag because we want things to be done a certain way, usually different to the current one, and we are irritated and agitated if this does not coincide with the notion in our minds.

Motivational speech includes prompts to stop complaining and appreciate things more. To be willing to change and adopt a more positive aspect on life. After all, aren’t optimists the ones who see the glass half-full and a silver lining in everything?

Complaining places you in the position of a victim as it is a sign you do not have control of a situation. It also causes you to waste (valuable) time. Instead, “champions never complain; they are too busy getting better” (John Wooden).

But in the end it all comes down to how good you feel within you and about yourself.

“The happiest people don’t have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything”.