Friday, December 7, 2012

December Reflections - 2

Back here and time for the next two prompts.

Fellowship - Oh yes, some new friends came along, and some old ones have gone out of touch and have now become just acquaintances. The close ones still remain close (touch wood). With some of them, I don't need to keep in touch that often, but one ping or a small email, and we are back to where we were. This happened just yesterday when a friend pinged after about 5 months and it was so therapeutic to just catch up with her. Also, met some wonderful folks on twitter. 

Cook - Well, this one asks me to describe the best recipe that I cooked this year. Now, that is a tough one, because I am bad with recipes. I call mom to ask the same recipes over and over again. I also keep some blogs open when I cook. Here are some of my favorite recipe blogs.

Sumthinz Cooking - My friend Reema's blog. My go-to place for all things that are simple and yet exotic. She makes even seemingly complicated recipes look so simple. Don't believe me? Check out the Palak Paneer recipe on the blog. 

Spicy Chilly is another favorite for South Indian stuff and I rely a lot on Shab's Cooking for Malabar recipes. For desserts, it is usually Ria's Collection that I turn to.

Will come back in a couple of days with the next two prompts.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

December Reflections

Now that it has been ages since I have blogged about anything, here is another attempt at what could get me going again. It is almost the end of the year, and what an year this has been - one where I have been so down to the pits that I thought I would never emerge out of it, to one where I have felt to be on top of this world. What this means is that I have enough to reflect about and I decided to participate in  Weverb12 - which gives you a prompt everyday to reflect and move forward. As expected, I missed the prompts for the first few days and here goes the first 4 prompts collectively. Also, I won't be following the prompts strictly as per the instructions, I will just look at the prompt and write about what comes to my mind when I hear it.

1. Compose

Retaining my composure is something that I am really bad it. I panic easily and get nervous in less than a minute for the silliest things. I tend to imagine the worst that could possibly happen. Surprisingly, I manage to keep this nervousness to myself in most cases, but ya, it does spill over at times. The next year, I want to see myself understanding that there would be situations where all I could do is to wait and watch. Panicking won't do me any good.

2. Watch 

Like I said earlier, wait and watch. Take a pause. Watch the rains. Watch the early morning sunshine. Watch a school bus full of excited kids go by. Watch the cake rise in the oven. Watch the beautiful formation that birds fly in.  Just watch.

3. Stay

Staying in the moment is so hard. The anxiety of what will happen next takes over and almost ruins it. Both me and S are people who always think about future rather than just being in the moment. Hopefully 2013 teaches us to just stay in the moment and relish. 

4. Experiment.

We experimented with impulsiveness. Yes. We have been crazy with some stuff this year. Last year, this time we had not even thought about buying a house and here we are, moved in to our own home. It was such an impulsive decision that we don't believe we managed to pull through. Here is to more such experiments.

Here's hoping that I will continue posting through this month.