Here's celebrating my new list of interests/activities that's probably doubled my list in just the last year. Excited!
Biking
Gardening
Hiking
Baking
Veganism
Besides of course my previous activties, which continue. Which is why I say that the list only gets longer, never shorter, umm, well I am done with my part-time degree, so that's probably one big thing off the list!
I am still in disbelief that I could be interested in some of these things, but I'm so happy I gave these a shot as they've led to an amazing phase of rediscovering myself. I think each of these deserves a few words-
Biking: This is one activity I am not surprised I got into. Though I didn't have a bike I could've seen myself as an avid biker any day. This summer I bought my first 'real' bike (the previous one I owned was a BSA SLR or something like that back in middle school in India, which I hardly used anyway cause of how hilly Bangalore was). Just 3 days after I bought the bike this summer, I took off on a close to half a day long ride, from Redmond to Seattle on the Sammamish River Trail/Burke Gilman Trail, and back, covering a distance of ~24 miles one way, so a nice ride of 48 miles roundtrip. Only wish I'd had company but since it was a weekday and I was the only (lucky) one who got a month's summer break this year in between jobs, I got the luxury of taking off on my own on a whim one morning. It was an amazing ride.
I am reminded of my first experience ever taking a bike on the street. It was when I was in 8th standard. My mom asked me to ride only inside our compond and not take it on the street. But when I sat on the bike I couldn't resist. I had to keep going and going. Adventure! I rode it up all the way to my friend Beena's place. Beena and her brother were on their balcony but they didn't see me. I kept ringing my bell to catch their attention but they were busy seeing off some guests. I kept looking up at them and ringing my bell, and in the process crashed into a lady who was standing at the side of the street with her baby. The baby (infant) started screaming and wailing!! It was probably one of my most emabarassing and guilt-tripping situations! I apologized profusely. She hit me and cussed!
Anyway, no crashes to report on my current bike. :-)
My husband and I got a baby carrier which attaches to his bike so the three of us can go biking. Just last evening, we had a beautiful ride by the waterfront, as we saw the sunset, and I made this up for my son :-) (call it tacky if you will) -
Gardening: Now this is one thing I never thought I'd ever get into. To be quite honest, I used to think gardening was for losers. :-) But I can't believe how calming, rewarding and enriching it is. It might have to do with my thoughts about sustainability, going green and how out of touch we as a humanity, are getting with nature, and also with eating organic, etc. Last year I proposed to my husband that we get rid of the wooden deck we have and make a garden instead. But for whatever reason, it took a year for this idea to get implemented. In spring this year, I started the project break-down-deck and then project make-garden-from-scratch. I have discovered my love for connecting with the earth. I understand the whims of mother earth, and her generosity too.
It started out with a sketch of my plan and having some contractors level out the place, and get some soil in. And now, I have a garden (yay!) - some grass all around, a raised bed with bell peppers, chilli peppers, eggplant, strawberries and sweet peas, some trees and bushes at the corners: bamboo, jasmine, rose, dwarf apple, bush peas, sunflower and pear, and some potted plants: little roses, dahlias I got from planting bulbs, spearmint, which tastes awesome in salads, chutneys and jal jeera, and cherry tomatoes.
While we are on that topic, I want to share a thought I've been having- my prediction for the near term future with regard to the increasing awareness with going green and sustainability is that, people will start realizing that growing their own food is the most sustainable. And then I think there will be "sustainability experts" - people freelancing in sustainabililty who will help you with your gardening and going-green plans.
Anyway, working with your hands is humbling and uplifting at the same time. Here's to more summers with yardwork!
Hiking: I've liked hiking in the past but it's more of a treasured experience now. I enjoy hiking with my husband and my son. This summer it started with our trip to Alaska, where we took off into wilderness and went on 4 hour hikes, with the little one tied to my husband's back. Now it's become a passion for both of us. Only, we can't always do it together as there are hikes that are too strenuous or long to go with a little one. But I am finding interested people to go with. My husband even did the very tough hike to Camp Muir this year. I unfortunately, haven't found company, so it will have to wait.
Baking: This is also something I'd have never thought I'd get into. Not that I've baked a lot this summer, but at least I started, and got rid of the 'fear of the unknown' factor. I think this was largely motivated by the green factor, basically trying to consume homemade stuff without god-knows-what-chemicals-and preservatives.
Veganism: There were many factors that led to my experimenting with veganism. Right now I have minimal dairy. Eggs is the thing that I am still having many weekends as I haven't found an alternate protein based breakfast. Plus, when we go on hikes with our son it's very convenient to take a few boiled eggs and toast to eat in our breaks.
My motivators for veganism were both health related and emotional reasons. I wanted to see if veganism promotes better digestion, better skin and overall better energy levels. The second factor had to do with my having gone through the experience of nursing my son, which was very very draining. As I thought about it, it just didn't seem fair that we were milking cows just to satisfy our own dairy addictions. Anyway, this is still in experimental phase, and if it proves to be a failure, I will have to go back to having dairy for the sake of getting all the nutrition I need, though I wouldn't be happy doing that. So far my experiments have been exciting and have gone well.
I have experimented with tea and coffee drinks, with soy milk, almond milk and coconut milk, and have discovered some interesting things. I have struggled and found ways to make great tasting vegan drinks. This has been more successful with teas and chocolate based drinks than coffee, which I am currently off of (that's another thing I'd have never imagined I'd give up).
There are some concerns about these milk substitutes- they are a lot more processed than cow's milk. So who knows what kinda stuff the body can accumulate and how it might respond over years of one's cosuming these. That is one concern I have. I know almond milk can be made at home, but so far I've been skeptical about it scaling up for everyday living, especially in this super busy life we have. But I need to figure it out and hope to do that, with time. For these reasons, I haven't imposed veganism onto my family. Over generations we have had dairy, but we have relatively very little experience with veganism, so it's a chance I am unwilling to take on a kid that's growing up.
Over the past few months I've also gone through a period of complete acceptance of myself and my past, and this has led to many things, but the one most important thing is, that now if I want to do something, I just go ahead and do it, without any second thoughts about he-said-she-said or even mere procrastination. This has helped me live fully, and love fully.
All in all, here's to hearty living! And may we never be content!
Biking
Gardening
Hiking
Baking
Veganism
Besides of course my previous activties, which continue. Which is why I say that the list only gets longer, never shorter, umm, well I am done with my part-time degree, so that's probably one big thing off the list!
I am still in disbelief that I could be interested in some of these things, but I'm so happy I gave these a shot as they've led to an amazing phase of rediscovering myself. I think each of these deserves a few words-
Biking: This is one activity I am not surprised I got into. Though I didn't have a bike I could've seen myself as an avid biker any day. This summer I bought my first 'real' bike (the previous one I owned was a BSA SLR or something like that back in middle school in India, which I hardly used anyway cause of how hilly Bangalore was). Just 3 days after I bought the bike this summer, I took off on a close to half a day long ride, from Redmond to Seattle on the Sammamish River Trail/Burke Gilman Trail, and back, covering a distance of ~24 miles one way, so a nice ride of 48 miles roundtrip. Only wish I'd had company but since it was a weekday and I was the only (lucky) one who got a month's summer break this year in between jobs, I got the luxury of taking off on my own on a whim one morning. It was an amazing ride.
I am reminded of my first experience ever taking a bike on the street. It was when I was in 8th standard. My mom asked me to ride only inside our compond and not take it on the street. But when I sat on the bike I couldn't resist. I had to keep going and going. Adventure! I rode it up all the way to my friend Beena's place. Beena and her brother were on their balcony but they didn't see me. I kept ringing my bell to catch their attention but they were busy seeing off some guests. I kept looking up at them and ringing my bell, and in the process crashed into a lady who was standing at the side of the street with her baby. The baby (infant) started screaming and wailing!! It was probably one of my most emabarassing and guilt-tripping situations! I apologized profusely. She hit me and cussed!
Anyway, no crashes to report on my current bike. :-)
My husband and I got a baby carrier which attaches to his bike so the three of us can go biking. Just last evening, we had a beautiful ride by the waterfront, as we saw the sunset, and I made this up for my son :-) (call it tacky if you will) -
Ride, ride, ride your bike
Gently down the street
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but so sweet...
Gardening: Now this is one thing I never thought I'd ever get into. To be quite honest, I used to think gardening was for losers. :-) But I can't believe how calming, rewarding and enriching it is. It might have to do with my thoughts about sustainability, going green and how out of touch we as a humanity, are getting with nature, and also with eating organic, etc. Last year I proposed to my husband that we get rid of the wooden deck we have and make a garden instead. But for whatever reason, it took a year for this idea to get implemented. In spring this year, I started the project break-down-deck and then project make-garden-from-scratch. I have discovered my love for connecting with the earth. I understand the whims of mother earth, and her generosity too.
It started out with a sketch of my plan and having some contractors level out the place, and get some soil in. And now, I have a garden (yay!) - some grass all around, a raised bed with bell peppers, chilli peppers, eggplant, strawberries and sweet peas, some trees and bushes at the corners: bamboo, jasmine, rose, dwarf apple, bush peas, sunflower and pear, and some potted plants: little roses, dahlias I got from planting bulbs, spearmint, which tastes awesome in salads, chutneys and jal jeera, and cherry tomatoes.
While we are on that topic, I want to share a thought I've been having- my prediction for the near term future with regard to the increasing awareness with going green and sustainability is that, people will start realizing that growing their own food is the most sustainable. And then I think there will be "sustainability experts" - people freelancing in sustainabililty who will help you with your gardening and going-green plans.
Anyway, working with your hands is humbling and uplifting at the same time. Here's to more summers with yardwork!
Hiking: I've liked hiking in the past but it's more of a treasured experience now. I enjoy hiking with my husband and my son. This summer it started with our trip to Alaska, where we took off into wilderness and went on 4 hour hikes, with the little one tied to my husband's back. Now it's become a passion for both of us. Only, we can't always do it together as there are hikes that are too strenuous or long to go with a little one. But I am finding interested people to go with. My husband even did the very tough hike to Camp Muir this year. I unfortunately, haven't found company, so it will have to wait.
Baking: This is also something I'd have never thought I'd get into. Not that I've baked a lot this summer, but at least I started, and got rid of the 'fear of the unknown' factor. I think this was largely motivated by the green factor, basically trying to consume homemade stuff without god-knows-what-chemicals-and preservatives.
Veganism: There were many factors that led to my experimenting with veganism. Right now I have minimal dairy. Eggs is the thing that I am still having many weekends as I haven't found an alternate protein based breakfast. Plus, when we go on hikes with our son it's very convenient to take a few boiled eggs and toast to eat in our breaks.
My motivators for veganism were both health related and emotional reasons. I wanted to see if veganism promotes better digestion, better skin and overall better energy levels. The second factor had to do with my having gone through the experience of nursing my son, which was very very draining. As I thought about it, it just didn't seem fair that we were milking cows just to satisfy our own dairy addictions. Anyway, this is still in experimental phase, and if it proves to be a failure, I will have to go back to having dairy for the sake of getting all the nutrition I need, though I wouldn't be happy doing that. So far my experiments have been exciting and have gone well.
I have experimented with tea and coffee drinks, with soy milk, almond milk and coconut milk, and have discovered some interesting things. I have struggled and found ways to make great tasting vegan drinks. This has been more successful with teas and chocolate based drinks than coffee, which I am currently off of (that's another thing I'd have never imagined I'd give up).
There are some concerns about these milk substitutes- they are a lot more processed than cow's milk. So who knows what kinda stuff the body can accumulate and how it might respond over years of one's cosuming these. That is one concern I have. I know almond milk can be made at home, but so far I've been skeptical about it scaling up for everyday living, especially in this super busy life we have. But I need to figure it out and hope to do that, with time. For these reasons, I haven't imposed veganism onto my family. Over generations we have had dairy, but we have relatively very little experience with veganism, so it's a chance I am unwilling to take on a kid that's growing up.
Over the past few months I've also gone through a period of complete acceptance of myself and my past, and this has led to many things, but the one most important thing is, that now if I want to do something, I just go ahead and do it, without any second thoughts about he-said-she-said or even mere procrastination. This has helped me live fully, and love fully.
All in all, here's to hearty living! And may we never be content!
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