Upside Down Kris

Day "What a glorious, scrumptious day!"I thought as I stretched in the open window, the sky blushing beyond me at the compliment. Can one use "scrumptious" to describe the day? Why not? It looks so good in its unabashed pale blue pureness that I can almost savor it. Expectations of beauty are tingling through me, the song already starting in my toes. Well, the best thing to do in these cases is to look the word up. The first definition I found on google was from Oxford Languages and says that scrumptious means "extremely tasty; delicious." However, it also describes a person who is "very attractive". What would Day be like if she were a person? Well, she would obviously be female. I imagine her wispy in white, flowing skirts. She descends with a kind of toga swirling around her. Her expression is serious, yet she is light, oh so light. She is made of light and swirls of sky. She floats around, pointing a candid finger here and there to wake the f...

  Newness–Week 4 Last highlights of newness. I hope I don't forget to always look for newness in life after writing this! Day #23: New Dance Partner An elderly man with a bandaid over his nose let me be delicate and light tonight. He let me express the music as I knew how, or as I felt it to be. God, how I love dancing with senior partners. There is nothing to prove: just to be. Day #25: Spending a weekday with my companion In our weekday wanderings we found a new shop in the center that sold used books (particularly comics and mysteries). We ventured downstairs and discovered that a record store had remained seemingly untouched there since the '80s, maybe even earlier. CDs covered the walls of our new found treasure land and the center was an aisle of records. My love found a vinyl of Joan Baez singing in Spanish that he had been searching for for a while, as well as two others that were practically being given away. This was probably because they were classical: one had a co...

  Newness: Highlights from week three Day 15: Succulent Tuna New recipe found on the internet. Wash the tuna and pat it dry. Marinate in the fridge for at least an hour with olive oil, lemon juice, parsley and pieces of garlic. Use the marinade to cook it on the stove e voilà! So good, so easy. Day 17: New Movie and Scenery *      I began watching a film with Jerry Lewis (Cinderfella). Why have I never seen anything with him before? I continued to ask myself. He was a master of time, musicality, sweetness, and humor. Many comedians studied his movies, including Jerry Seinfeld and Eddie Murphy, and I'm just getting to know him now! * Walk by myself in an amazing park with a secular cedar tree. How wonderful it was to have the time to take it all in... Day 18: New Old Recipe: Orange Honey Carrots The original recipe says to heat coconut oil in a pan and cook cut carrots until a bit soft, then to  mix them with a tablespoon of orange juice and another of maple syr...

  Newness–Week Two Highlights Day #9 *New recipe with my partner from the Canary Islands Fry onion, green pepper, and carrots with oil. Boil swill chard apart and then add them to the other veggies. Mix together parmesan cheese, eggs, salt, pepper, and heavy cream and add to the veggies. Fold tuna fish into the whole mix and then put it in the oven. Delicious! Day #10 *New "sweet" recipe: carrot cake with rice flour Wash and peel carrots and cut them into tiny pieces or use a mixer.  Beat 3 eggs and sugar until fluffy, add rice flour, baking powder, a pinch of salt, oil, and orange juice stirring all the time. Put in oven at °160 C for 40 minutes and enjoy! *Spending time with a friend who came to visit us and going out for fresh pasta in the evening to a place with a view of the city. Day #12 Another new recipe! I'm thinking about making a recipe book...Why not? *Plum Sauce: Our friend left us with a kilo of plumbs. That's a lot, and we'll never get through them,...

Newness, Week One Highlights from the first week of my newness challenge... Day 4 *      I took a different street home last night, riding through the heart of the city instead of on the "heartless" bike trail which trailed after cars. The "heart" was still throbbing with students drinking outside of a joint fused with an old city gate (what would the old architects think of that!), pedestrians walking home, people twisting their pasta on a restaurant plate... *     I ate at a student's house. It was nothing new (rice and vegetables), a part from the splash of white wine that I don't usually get to sip with lunch. It was my friend and her son's company that was extraordinary because I normally eat alone. Day 5 *     I made a new recipe. (I've been doing that a lot lately.) The aroma of coconut mixed with curry...out of this world is the only way I can describe it, totally filling my senses...The taste of slow cooked chicken with spices and zucchin...

The Newness Challenge This morning, I awoke with: what if I tried something new everyday? Would that help me to feel alive, to add spice to "normalcy"? New creates excitement and stimulates. I know routines are necessary–they help build good habits and align life–but novelty opens up new pathways in the brain. Challenges–as long as they're not too heavy–can cheer you on, help you to set new goals. So, then I thought: what if I dare myself to do something new everyday, like my challenge to find "magic moments" in my daily life? I immediately felt the idea prickle under my skin, but doubts also stung me: is it really possible to find something extraordinary in the commonplace? And will I be able to see it as I stumble upon it? What constitutes "new", anyway? Is it because you've never done something before or because you've never seen it in a certain way before that makes the difference? I think it was Jim Kwik who said "novelty helps neuron...

The Boon of Recovery Everyone knows there is a great abyss between a cold and a heavy duty operation: the first is just plain annoying and the second can be edifying. I'm sure you've had head colds that cloud your brain and numb your taste, putting you into a general state of malaise. Maybe you've even groaned: "When is this going to end?!" The truth is you know it will last a week or two at most, but you crash onto the couch complaining: "This is the worst cold ever !" An important operation, on the other hand, is, well...important. I'm not talking about something like removing a mole, mind you, but one that throws you into a different ball park, one that launches you into the air only to leave you lying on the ground for an indefinite amount of time. It's the temporary loss of self and the not knowing how long it will last that rockets the experience into the realm of "life change." And change your life if does. It leaves you asking q...