The Path
Something unexpected happened to me this past year. I’m now 51, turning 52 in March. I didn’t notice it at the time, but shortly after I turned 50, my perspective began to change again, and pretty dramatically. It was a similarly life-changing paradigm shift as when I turned 40, but without the trauma. What happened? Two things. I became more interested in whether my day-to-day life was satisfying me. And I found that, without any effort on my part, I had just stopped caring what others thought of my choices. Not in a nasty, “screw you” kind of way; in an accepting, respectful “everyone is entitled to their opinion and choices” kind of way. Live and let live. No more compunction to try to persuade others to see anything my way. Just gone. RELIEF!
Is this a natural progression of simple aging? Have any of you experienced this? In any event, it feels really good. I revamped my daily life to do more of what satisfies my basic constitution. I’m a student at heart. I have a deep intellectual curiosity. I like to delve into bodies of knowledge, distill them down to useable nuggets, then share those nuggets and solutions with others. That’s what led me to write my book, “Stress Less, Weigh Less.” And that has now led me back to the active practice of law, which I am enjoying so much.
We spend most of our lives preparing for events and pushing to achieve goals. We fill our daily life with things that strain us, stress us out and tax our physical and mental health in exchange for the happiness and satisfaction we hope to feel when a goal is achieved. I did that for years. But you know what? The excitement and satisfaction with a goal achieved were always short-lived. I’d celebrate an achievement, and then start gearing up for the next in a never-ending stream of goals, constantly looking to the future. It was in this past year that I realized events and goals are not “life.” They are the flowers on the path, but they are not the path itself. I became ever so much more interested in the path. And boy, is that satisfying.
In Eastern philosophy they teach to live in the “now.” In Western culture, we are taught to live always for future goals, keeping our eye on the ball. And there is a place for that. How would we get a degree or a new job if we just floated through life, looking at the daisies? But … what if we primarily focused instead on moment-to-moment fulfillment? Isn’t the future simply more of what we live now? Have you ever seen someone have a happy ending to an unhappy journey where the happiness lasted? Can you plant apple seeds and get oranges?
This seems to be the final piece to the stress reduction puzzle. My stress levels are not just low … they are non-existent!
New 5-ingredients-or-less recipe – Holly’s Tandoori Chicken!
This is a ridiculously fast, easy, high-protein, low-calorie recipe I’ve been making for this past year. And it is delicious.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Take 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and place them in a baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.
Blend 1 level tablespoon each of ground ginger, cumin and turmeric. Add ½ teaspoon of salt, and cayenne pepper to taste. Blend well. Sprinkle half the mixture on the chicken breasts; flip them over and sprinkle the rest.
Now here’s the shortcut: Place the baking dish (with a cover to prevent splatters) into the microwave. Microwave on high for 5 minutes, then flip the breasts over and microwave on high for another 5 minutes.
Place the dish in the oven to finish – about 10 minutes or so, but cook until the chicken is completely cooked and there is no pink in the middle. If you need to, you can always increase the time in the microwave to make sure the chicken is cooked through.
That’s it! Simple. And I think it tastes even better leftover for lunch the next day.
Love,
Holly
