Whenever I think of our 5 senses (sight, touch, smell, hear, taste) I remember my 2nd and 3rd grade teacher (we had two classes in the same room) Mrs. Knorr teaching us with charts and and cards. Those images came to mind over this past week, as I felt within a 1 or 2 day period I had unintentionally satisfied all of them.
By satisfied I mean to say that the minimum quota was filled. If my senses were an empty glass, it would have been replenished to the brim. I believe when we are discouraged most in our lives, when our existence feels meaningless, numb and sterile, we ought to seek to fill our senses, each one of them, as quickly as possible. When you can't remember the last time you've seen, touched, smelled, heard or tasted something beautiful---something that makes your heart melt just a little bit---it's time to get up and seek it; because when you do, you'll be reminded that we have one life- one chance- one shot to soak up as much of it as you can before it's too late. No?
So I felt satisfied this past week as I reflected on these things and ways in which my body soaked up my surroundings. We went to hear a beautiful orchestra and chorus play the music of Bach. We sat on the balcony and as I closed my eyes and listened to the participants belt their voices and play their instruments, the echoes bounced against the ceilings and into my ears. My hearing sense was being overwhelmed.
Before the concert they instructed us to come get chairs to sit on, since we did not have tickets. We walked down two annoyingly long hallways to get our own chair to sit on, which in my mind was pretty ridiculous. Anyway, as we approached the end of the last hall, I realized that we were walking into an ornately designed chapel. That word can't describe the beauty of this room though. It was completely dark and quiet, except for the shadow of a priest in his meditation, and the light that was shining from the hallway. Every inch of the walls were covered in detail. My eyes were overwhelmed with beauty!
An occurrence much less beautiful, though equally satisfying (as odd as this sounds), I was walking around Ikea with a friend the day before and I just sat there and smelled the wonderful candles. Each one was so unique and so beautiful, and being surrounded by all the items I one day would like to fill my home with, those smells sparked images of my future with a family and a house. (That MUST be a chic thing cause I could never imagine a guy doing that...maybe if he smelled Lowes Home Improvement or cut grass?).
I say this not to boast, mind you, but sometimes in a great while I eat food that makes my soul smile. Since I know what kinds of foods I enjoy, I use those ingredients in my dishes. I made that pork/bacon/veggie stuff with nice pasta and alfredo sauce (with really expensive cheese) drizzled heartily with balsamic glaze. For dessert we had a 3 layer cheesecake with a ganache topping. It's not the most amazing food out there, but it makes me happy to eat it. So my taste buds were satisfied here, definitely.
The feeling of cold air to me is so nice, especially on a nice brisk evening when I'm in a good mood and walking by myself. The other night I was walking by myself at night listening to my iPod, and the feeling of that cold air was just so refreshing and automatically put me in a good mood. My touch senses were being filled as well.
Anyway, I don't have too much of a point to this, except to say that it's important to fill your senses once in a while, whatever that might look like. Have any recent experiences where you've done this and it's refreshed you?
Recently I've been enjoying soup for dinner... which is pretty unusual for me because I'm not a huge soup consumer. By the time I get home from the Building it's usually a strange hour past dinner but before bed and I'm hungry, but I don't want a big meal.
I made some french onion soup from scratch the other night which was actually pretty flippin' decent, but it made my stomach hurt SOOO bad, I was like doubled over in pain. So, so much for that!
But Petra made this yummy yummy creamy garlic soup the other day for a group dinner at my house. I've been eating it almost every night and it's reeeeally good. So I put some freshly grated Parmesan, fresh basil and breadcrumbs on top, drizzled with Texas Pete hot sauce to kick it up a notch. OH! And this is one of the bowls I bought from Ikea which could make a piece of poop look like a gourmet meal. Ew... or not, nasty.
“In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved his title. Do not lose your knowledge that man's proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours.”
Ayn Rand quotes (Russian born American Writer and Novelist, 1905-1982)
So here's a project I'm working on. I'm not 100% on this design, but really the design doesn't matter too much. I'm raising money for a nice computer and computer programs for The Building. I'm doing this because right now their computer is ancient--and my goal is to leave them completely self sufficient when I leave as far as their advertising goes- so when they need to design a flier or t-shirt or update their website they can and they won't have to spend a ton of money to go somewhere else. So 10 months from now my goal is to have everything completely running from their computer and not mine. They'll have Adobe CS2 or CS3 and I hope the entire Macromedia set which includes Flash too (that's a gift from me though).
Oh, and Pokrok means progress in Slovak.
I was taking a shower this morning and used some of my Dr. Bronner's All-In-One soap, which has become a favorite soap of mine to use. It is biodegradable, vegetable based, fair trade, organic, multipurpose, no preservatives or synthetics, blahdy bladhy blah, whatever, it works (especially while backpacking and traveling... I recommend the peppermint).
Anyway if you've ever spent more than a second looking at the label of Dr. Bronner's soap you might notice something a little different about it. What you might notice is that a pseudo-cult leader "doctor" has designed the soap. My favorite part about their website is when they call Earth, "Spaceship Earth".
Here's an excerpt from their crazy bottle labels: "Replace half-true Socialist-fluoride poison & tax-slavery with full-truth, work-speech-press & profitsharing Socialaction! All-One! So, help build 4 billion Hannibal wind-power plants, charging 96 billion battery-banks, powering every car-factory-farm-home-monorail & pump, watering Babylon-roof-gardens & 800 billion Israel-Milorganite fruit trees, guarded by Swiss 6000 year Universal Military Training..." Yeah, I don't have it in front of me so I can't tell you the other insane things they talk about.
So that got me thinking... by buying this soap am I financially supporting crazy cults? Which also got me thinking, where is the line on what we buy from whom and how our buying their products supports their bad causes? Wal-Mart supports a TON of things I very much disagree with, and so does Target and Disney and Starbucks and just about any other large liberal company out there. But does that mean we should boycot any and all companies who financially support causes we disagree with? Where do we draw the line?
I have no answer to this, rather I just wanted to post the question and see if anyone had any thoughts on it.
Oh, and it's my 200th post... sweet!
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