Lesson of the day: Making the most of anything

If you were to rewind two weeks, you would have found me skipping through the greenery. Literally. A couple of weeks ago I went for a walk through the trails and found myself genuinely stopping to smell flowers, smiling at everyone I passed and breaking into a skip here and there. I was in a happy place on par with what you see portrayed in Viagra commercials. And I wondered idly to myself, “I feel I may be too happy right now — is the world just waiting to bite me in the butt?” Sadly, I think that may have been the case. My life had given me a wonderful high, only to throw a whackload of wrenches in my way. And slowly as I got hit by bummer after bummer, I felt myself falling further and further away from my happy place. Which I did not appreciate.

So today I thought to myself, what can I do that no one can take away from me? And it suddenly occurred to me — I can donate blood. So I nervously made my way to the nearest donation centre and took the plunge. It was my first time doing it and I was terrified I would experience some extreme pain, or pass out, or worse. But I didn’t! So to all those people who have been making me feel like less than what I am, I have this to say:

I saved three lives today, what did you do?

Happy Thanksgiving! Things I was thankful for today…

Well, it’s Thanksgiving in Canada — so it only seems right that I share the 10 things I was most thankful for today…

1 My first sip of coffee. Let’s face it, the first is always the best of all of them.

2. That moment where you think you’ve eaten all the homemade bars/cookies in a tin, only to pull up the tinfoil and discover there’s a whole other layer underneath. Here’s to my mom’s unbelievable oat, seed and fruit bars… and the fact I still have a another row of them to eat!

3. I saw a bear and lived to tell the tale. Okay, that makes it sound more serious than it sounds. But on my bike ride today a young bear (I’m thinking teen years, or maybe the terrible tweens) ran away from me and I thought for sure mama bear was going to hunt me down. But I’m still here!

4. The movie Madagascar. Have you watched it lately? I don’t remember what I thought of it the first time I saw it but I just rewatched it and can’t count the amount of times I laughed out loud.

5. That I have family I am genuinely sad not to see at Thanksgiving. It might sound odd to say I’m thankful for being sad during a holiday. But I consider myself very fortunate to have family that I love so much that it makes me sad to not see them every day of my life. I know a lot of people are unbelievably stressed around the holidays to have to see family they don’t like or deal with critical relatives. So I think I’m pretty lucky to have a family I love so much.

6. That my mom went through all the trouble of putting together a whole Thanksgiving dinner just for the two of us. Now that’s commitment!

7. That my cat deigned to look in my direction long enough for me to snap this picture:

8. And the fact I treat myself to a fancy new camera that can take images like this:

9. My job. I am unbelievably grateful that I can choose to take a day off when I need one and that’s okay because I make my own hours. It’s a rare gift to love what you do and I should be thankful every day that I have such a gift in my life.

10. Pumpkin pie. It’s that simple. No Thanksgiving would be complete without it and I am very happy I got to have some today.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

The 30-Day Vegan Challenge

For a couple of years now, the concept of going vegan has been bouncing around in my head. There are many aspects that have always drawn me to the lifestyle. But it always seemed like too much. It was too big, too daunting, too restrictive, too expensive, too time-consuming… and on the list went. Could I live with never eating yogurt again? Could I turn down the plate of turkey at Christmas? I didn’t think so. So I kept putting it off. But over the last few months, every time my vegetarian roommate cooked dinner I thought… “well that looks easy!” And in her warm and inspiring way she would tell me about some of the documentaries she has watched and what she’s learned and things in my head started to shift. I took out books from the library. I looked up facts and recipes on the internet. As I learned about what animals endure to fill the needs of human beings — how cruel the methods are, how wasteful, how unnecessary. I was saddened. I was deeply, deeply saddened to know how much of a role I had played in their suffering. And I felt foolish at having pushed away my concerns or questions about what they go through simply because I didn’t think I could handle the truth. And with that new knowledge, making a change started to seem more doable. And most importantly, more necessary.

But it wasn’t until I came across the book The 30-Day Vegan Challenge that everything clicked. There was suddenly a resource that made it all seem within my grasp. Really, what can’t you do for 30 days? Especially when it’s something you believe in and want to commit to? I’ve commited to countless things for well over 30 days that I’ve had absolutely no interest in simply because I “had” to. So why wouldn’t I commit to something that I’m passionate about? And clearly there is no good answer to that question because I am now on day four of the 30-day challenge!

But despite how excited I am and how easy and fun and invigorating it has been so far, there is still something that has been nagging at me just as it used to over a year ago: what if I can’t stick with it forever? What if I desperately want to enjoy the Christmas dinner I’m used to? What if the dish at a restaurant that I really, really want has cheese, or eggs, or salmon? How will I feel about giving in? Now that I know all that I know about the industry such products come from? Seeing as I have 26 days to go, I can’t answer that question yet. I don’t know how I’ll feel. Maybe 30 days without animal products will make me lose interest in them all together. But it also may be the case that there are certain products I don’t think I can live without. And it may also be the threat of always feeling I am inconveniencing others when I go to their place and can’t eat any of the foods they offer. I truly don’t know what I would do in such a situation because hurting their feelings or inconveniencing them would greatly upset me.

As I’ve been reading The 30-Day Vegan Challenge I have been bouncing these worries around in my head to no end. And then finally, when I reached the very last chapter I was presented with a notion that changed it all:

“Don’t do nothing because you can’t do everything. Do something. Anything.”

Attempting to diminish my footprint on the world doesn’t have to be all or nothing. No one is perfect. No one can do everything. Someone may not eat meat but they may buy grains that have been cultivated by a worker who was paid next to nothing for the task. Another might bike to work rather than drive but buy running shoes that have been made by child workers. I might not be able to live a 100% vegan lifestyle forever, but have I done any harm by trying?

In just four days I have learned many new things that I feel will contribute to diminishing my impact on animal suffering for the rest of my life. For example, ground cashews can add the creaminess of Parmesan cheese to a pasta dish. And gravy can taste equally divine when made with vegetable broth as with beef or chicken. And tofu, when done right, can taste every bit as savory and decadent as the best cut of meat. And as the days move forward I hope to discover some other great alternatives such as coconut milk based ice cream and soy yogurt. If nothing else, living without animal products for 30 days will open my eyes to all the alternatives that are out there in order to help me reduce my negative impact on the lives of animals. I may never be the perfect vegan. Or the perfect person. But who is? All I can do is open my eyes to what is going around me, absorb the knowledge and do my best to live my life as open-mindedly and compassionately as possible.

Cheers to day four!

Gratitude of the Day: Living in a basement

Now, it must be admitted that I don’t always love the fact I live in a basement. When I wake up and it’s pitched black and there’s no way for me to know whether it’s 2 a.m. or noon. I don’t love living in a basement. When the power goes out and I have to resort to filling a pan up with candles while others could simple draw the curtains, I don’t love living in a basement. But when do I love living in a basement?

When the city has been hovering around 30 degrees C for weeks and my home — air conditioner free, might I add — is at the perfect temperature. This time last year in my second floor apartment I was sleeping on top of my covers, with the door open and the fan propped next to the window — so it could weakly blow some humid air in my direction. And to complete that picture — I was sleeping with my head at the foot of the bed just to get it that little bit closer to the window. It was also so hot that blow drying and/or straightening my hair, or, really, looking presentable in any way, shape or form, was completely out of the question. So that is why today, I give thanks for my glorious basement apartment.

And while I’m at it — that whole power outage thing I mentioned. Not so bad when you have an awesome roommate and wind up spending the entirety of the evening huddled around a collection of tea-lights gabbing away and eating various dairy products and fruit items (because after all — they could have gone bad at any moment for all we knew!)

So here’s to cool basements, awesome roommates and unexpected turns of events that wind up being spectacular!

Gratitude of the Day

I am suddenly very aware of a certain gratitude I don’t celebrate nearly enough:

That moment at the end of the day when you realize you have made it through all your work and what’s left of the day is all yours.

I am in said moment right now and feel it is only right that I take a second to be grateful for it. My day started bright and early, I went straight to work, pulled an 8.5 hour shift with a multitude of ridiculously frustrating situations, ran an errand, went to the gym, lugged a very heavy bag home (from the aforementioned errand) and sat down to work for 4 more hours. But it’s all okay because it may be 11:30 at night and I may conk out in 30 minutes but until my head hits the pillow — the night is all mine!

Gratitude of the day: Not being a teenager anymore

Sometimes when I’m down I feel compelled to make a list of all the things I’m grateful for. The list is usually quite serious and introspective — filled with thing like “my family” and “having a safe home”. But today I would like to express my gratitude for something far simpler — not being a teenager anymore.
All it took was a gaggle of adolescents getting on the subway next to me to make me realize how grateful I am to be done with that part of my life. Normally when I see a group of teenagers yelling across a streetcar or smoking on the corner of school grounds I roll my eyes and struggle to suppress my irritation. But something about this particular lead me to a revelation of how happy I am not to be in that age bracket anymore. Clawing for attention, desperate to understand who they are, wishing they felt they fit in, questioning each and every decision they make because the whole notion of “just be yourself” makes absolutely no logical sense, feeling they have to buy this electronic or that purse because they can’t possibly be cool without it, pushing to get in a comment so they can establish they have a place in the crazy world that is high school. Man. Did that ever suck!
Lately magazines are filled with celebrities saying they feel better than ever at 30, at 40, at 50 — whatever age it is — my gosh, it has to be better than 13 through 18. You couldn’t pay me to relive that ridiculous insecurity and self doubt. I’m not saying I radiate self love and confidence every second of the day, but I certainly feel a whole lot better about myself than I did five years ago and that is something to be truly grateful for.

Tina Fey on Body Image

A few weeks ago I posted a quote from Tina Fey’s Bossypants that I read in a magazine. But now that my sister’s fiance was kind enough to get my the actual book for Christmas, I am currently working my way through the hilarity. I just came to the point where that quote is actually mentioned and feel the need to repost it in its entirety as it is so true.

Today, girls are expected to have:

“- Caucasian blue eyes

- Full Spanish lips

- a classic button nose

- hairless Asian skin with a Californian tan

- a Jamaican dance hall ass

- long Swedish legs

- small Japanese feet

- the abs of a lesbian gym owner

- the hips of a nine-year-old-boy

- the arms of Michelle Obama

- and doll tits”

 

Well said Ms. Fey, well said! But she also has another quote in this section that I would like to share. After discussing the popularity of thin blondes that has dominated the majority of decades past, Fey writes the following paragraph:

“The first real change in women’s body image came when JLo turned it butt-style. That was the first time that having a large-scale situation in the back was part of mainstream American beauty. Girls wanted butts now. Men were free to admit that they had always enjoyed them. And then, what felt like moments later, boom – Beyonce brought the leg meat. A back porch and thick muscular legs were now widely admired. And from that day forward, women embraced their diversity and realized that all shapes and sizes are beautiful. Ah ha ha. No. I’m totally messing with you. All Beyonce and JLo have done is add to the laundry list of attributes women must have to qualify as beautiful.”

I found this paragraph particularly insightful – and not something that is often said. I have many friends who look at Sophia Vergara or Christina Hendricks with idolizing eyes as they are some of the curvier ladies on screen these days. My friends say “I’m so glad she has a real body” or “Congrats to that show for putting a woman with hips on TV”. And though I think kids should have lots of divers role models to look up to – I don’t like the fact that the quality of a role model is determined by the size of her hips or the grade of her cup size. Sophia Vergara is a good role model because she’s spunky and tough – not because she has an hourglass figure.

The fact is that these women’s shapes may be unique television, but it is still the shapes that people are focused on. Melissa McArthy isn’t a good or bad role model because of her size – she’s a great role model because she is a deeply funny and talented actress. A person’s size or shape has little to nothing to do with their health and general well being. A person can have a great smile but secretly drown puppies in his/her backyard, just as a person can have a 22 inch waist but die of a heart attack at 50 from eating McDonalds every single day.

Tina Fey is the first person to vocalize what I did not understand how to say for myself – that focusing on the physical attributes of a person in ANY way is not a step forward. It is by accepting your body as just that – a body – that progress can happen. People are beautiful because they help others, because they provide for their families, because they seek to improve their spirits and the spirits of those around them each and every day. We should be celebrating what people can do – not what they look like.

Why should I spend my days on this earth trying to get myself that hairless California tanned skin when I can spend it sewing a dress for my niece? Why should I spend hours trying to get Michelle Obama’s arms when I can wander around a museum with my friends? Life is to short to spend it trying to mold one’s body into some unrealistic box. So lets just live and let live – and love other for who they truly are!

Well it’s official…

I am in family withdrawal.

With the holidays being over, my family members have returned to their various homes that are scattered over the North American continent. I spent two weeks addicted to hanging out with them and now I won’t see them again until May – which is a bummer to say the least.

There really is nothing quite like family. Only with family can you get out of bed with hair that hasn’t been washed in days and pyjamas that you’ve been wearing for a week straight and not care in the least. Only with family can you act like a total goof and have it be celebrated (or at the very east – put up with). And only with your family can you debate, fight, yell, give each other the silent treatment and have everything be back to how it was the next day – because no matter how much you squabble – you all know the love is still there.

So, yes, I am in withdrawal. Yes, I wish I could be sitting around sipping coffee my papa made fresh instead of serving it at 6 in the morning at work. And yes, I wish I could be playing Wii Fit and Just Dance with my sister and her fiancee for hours on end. And it would certainly be nice to look down the hall and see my niece and nephew playing with my sister and her husband instead of seeing the mess of clothes I have yet to unpack. And as much as I love cooking, it really is nice to have a home cooked meal at the end of the night instead of spending over an hour doing it myself.

But I guess the important thing to take away from this sad feeling I am experiencing right now is how fortunate I am to have a family that I miss. Not everyone in the world is so blessed as to have a safe haven every time they head home and that is something to be celebrated. So even though I may not see my whole family for another five months – I’m just going to have to shrug off these silly withdrawal feelings and focus on the positive – that I have a family – and a darn good one at that!