Spilling the Coffee Beans...

I have a love-hate relationship with coffee. I really don't like using the words love and hate just like that, but coffee is a big thing for me. When I was young it was always coffee flavored water you used to dip your Pan Dulce in, or your Maria brand crackers. (The way you would dunk your cookies in milk). We were a family of bread dunkers. If there was no bread then there was no coffee. 

So, the thing about coffee...

The One Thing You Must Do For Yourself Now

Spend time WITH yourself not just BY yourself. 

There is a difference. BY yourself means doing things on your own; independently. WITH yourself would mean that you are actually WITH yourself. You are getting to know yourself and understanding yourself. 

A Reasons To Smile

Smiling when you aren't feeling well is difficult. Most of us are pretty good at hiding our feelings and emotions even when we are feeling down. 

You might fool someone when you talk to them. You nod while you listen to them talk about their day. You answer some questions or input a thought in between the breaks. You grin, showing your beautiful teeth, and produce lines at the corner of your eyes. If we don't know how to read you because either a) we don't know how to read anyone, or b) don't know you enough to be able to read you, then we might miss how you are truly feeling. We might miss the unsettledness in your eyes, and the distress in the depths of them. 

Image by Giulia Marotta from Pixabay 

You might be the other person. The one that talks and asks questions, and perhaps smiles. You might not know this but sometimes that is what we need. You might be someone who can read us and know the questions to ask. You smile at us and lightly touch our arm. When you do we'll feel the warmth of that touch, and then perhaps be able to smile; a genuine smile from a genuine caring touch. 

Perhaps you walk by a stranger, a stranger with somber eyes. You smile and say hello. You might not know this but sometimes that is what someone needs. A friendly hello. Why? That stranger could be feeling lonely, or has been let down by someone. What if you go above that smile and compliment them? "I like your shoes" or "that shade of orange looks great with your skin tone." It might seem superficial, but perhaps the stranger has been lacking confidence and need a tiny boost to their self-esteem, at least for that moment. 

Smile. We all need more of it.
We need to give a compassionate smile as much as we need to receive it.
It's a small thing we can do.

Have you smiled at anyone today?

You Are Not Alone

The mornings from last week were lit up with an orange glow. It was as if someone decided to turn off the sunlight and instead replaced it with a light bulb. It felt artificial. 

Also, the whole street and cars were covered in white specks. It must have snowed ash while we were all asleep. They probably fell gently and lightly. But instead of them being cool and evaporating into the air, they’re warm and dusty. 

Now, this whole week we wake up and step out of our home to the slight smell of burn, and the air a smoky haze.  

Break the Fast With Breakfast

Image by Lukas Bieri from Pixabay

I think a lot of people enjoy having a good breakfast. Why not, after waking up from an eight to twelve hour fast (or maybe more), we’re bound to be hungry! I don’t usually get hungry when I wake up, unless I had a light dinner. It takes a while for my stomach to catch up to me.

My fast is usually about twelve hours, which I don't think it's bad. It is also not intentional, like I said it takes a while for me to begin to feel like having something to eat. There are people however who go through a sixteen hour fast.

I've heard of the benefits of fasting, which includes: increasing the body's resistance to stress, and decreasing your risk of cancer and other diseases. The main reason why people do fasts though is to loose weight. That is far from my case. I don't need to loose weight, I just want to reap the other benefits. It would be difficult for me to do a sixteen hour fast because I'll have to make sure I eat enough, and my stomach is not big enough. That is why I'm not too inclined to do the sixteen hour one. Here is a short article that quickly talks about and lists the benefits: UCI Health Article. If you'd like a more in depth article with links to even more in depth info from studies: Harvard Health Article

Back to breakfast...

The Book Thief- A Read I Couldn't Put Down

I spent most of my Saturday and Sunday finishing up the last 250 pages of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I wasn't going to post so soon, but it was a good book I had to write a bit about it.

The novel is about a girl name Liesel who is being cared for by foster parents in Germany during World War II. A few month’s after the girl’s arrival they take a young Jew in and hide him in the basement. The girl develops a special bond with all of them. “Papa” is a gentle and patient man who teaches her the alphabet and how to read. She discovers that “Mama” has a soft side, and even with her tendency to swear so much, she is motherly. The young Jew becomes a very close friend and someone she cares deeply about. Everyday she gives him a weather report, and every Thursday a discarded newspaper with a sometimes blank crossword puzzle. When he got very ill and fell into a deep sleep for over two weeks, she brought him gifts from the outside every day (they are extremely poor, so the gifts would be trinkets and things she’d find discarded on the ground). The bond they share is due to what they have in common: they wake up almost every night from nightmares—nightmares of the family they lost. Through him Liesel learns that words are powerful and they can help to heal or to hurt. 

Living Without Cable or Streaming Services

Growing up my family never had cable television or internet.

Image by Andrés Rodríguez from Pixabay 

Now as an adult I still don’t have cable (or a subscription to Netflix, or Hulu. I do have Amazon Prime however but only because it came free with my phone plan. I rarely watch anything on there), and I don’t have home internet either. Is anybody shocked?

A couple of years ago I was asked if I watched a really popular show (I can’t remember the name). I told the lady that I didn’t have cable or Netflix or anything. 

Her response: “How do you live?”