Thank you very much to V Man magazine for capturing these shots of Channing Tatum, in service of his latest film no doubt, and if it’s the fun-looking one with Sandra Bullock in a sequin gown, and cameo by Brad Pitt, I’m all in. Channing has given good face here before, and there are links galore in that post so I won’t bore you with them here, here, or here.
Representing Canada, Vanessa James and Eric Redford are competing in the ice skating pairs competition, and while Radford is one of several openly-gay male skaters in the sport, James is the only Black female competing in this year’s Olympic figure skating events. Check out this article for more on the dearth of Black figure skaters at the Olympics. Today, James and Radford are crowned Dazzlers of the Day for their quick and spectacular ascension on the ice – they’ve only been together a short time compared to other teams, and in that time they’ve made themselves into a formidable pair.
We wait here and take in a deep breath – all the way in, expanding the stomach and the lungs and the chest, letting the breath push into every last available space before slowly letting it out again – and in the span of this breath we acknowledge the wonder of winter. Almost halfway through the last full month of the sleepy season, mid-February doesn’t always feel like spring is around the corner, but it’s actually not that far off.
On this day, I find solace in my daily meditation, to which I’ve incorporated one of the activities in Mathew Sockolov’s somewhat-cumbersomely-titled ‘Practicing Mindfulness: 75 Essential Meditations to Reduce Stress, Improve Mental Health, and Find Peace in the Everyday‘. Currently I’m on #14: ‘Energizing the Mind’ – no comment from the peanut gallery, or any gallery for that matter. I’ve been doing one per day, so by the time I reach #75 we will be well into April, which should be a very happy place to be.
Even in these socially-isolated times, it’s difficult for some of us to find the quiet in a day. Family obligations and care, work and living-space maintenance, and the mere machinations of an average day make true peace and calm feel like an unattainable state, but it’s not. It simply requires the effort to carve out the space of time for it. Designating ten to fifteen minutes somewhere in a day is not as tough as most of us pretend it is, and it is in this little quarter of an hour in which life can transform.
It didn’t happen on the first day that I meditated – and it didn’t happen on the tenth. I can’t even say it happened on the hundredth day, but on all the days in-between and since, that little sliver of calm grew into a more stable and contented frame of mind that I carried with me throughout the intervening times. That’s the real secret and power of meditation – the way it subtly raises the level and peace and calm that is in all the in-between moments – and those moments form the bulk of our lives.
Check out this math: currently Lindsey Jacobellis has earned almost half of the total gold medals the US has won so far. Jacobellis just won her second gold at Beijing which brings the total US tally to five. Lindsey has made an impressive two-decade career as a snowboard cross-athlete, and these gold medals are amazing for anyone to have earned – that she’s still at the top of her game is nothing short of spectacular. (Let me know when Ice Slipping is an Olympic event – until then I remain a happy non-contender.) Congrats to Lindsey on the double gold accomplishment.
Outdoor adventurer Dylan Efron earns his first Dazzler of the Day thanks to an incendiary Instagram account – a colorful, beautiful, and awe-inspiring collection of exciting photos from his various journeys. It’s not always easy to live in the perceived shadow of a famous sibling (see Zac Efron) but Dylan seems to have found his own path to follow, and his very own inspiration to conjure.
Flowers for Valentine’s Day are over-priced and overly-familiar, two things that should be avoided at all costs. But flowers on any other day are welcome and adored, appreciated for their beauty as much as the unexpected delight they produce. I was reminded of that when Andy returned home from a trip to the market with this beautiful bouquet of lilies and irises, two favorite flowers that transformed the entire house with their cheery visage and intoxicating perfume.
It wasn’t just the happy connotation with summer and sunnier days that they produced, but the unexpected pleasure of their appearance on an otherwise-unremarkable and ho-hum day. That’s the mark of a good husband: anyone can check the boxes off for a holiday – it’s the ones who check the boxes on all the other days that are to be cherished.
The soft pink and purple color palette at work eases these mid-February days, when the whole world feels constricted and bothered by winter. Andy and I have been mostly keeping inside, cozy ensconced near the hearth of our home, quietly marking and inhabiting each day as it passes. We watch the elongating light, the way the sun begins making rainbows for longer periods in the bedroom as it passes through the crystal-topped finial of a lamp. Spring feels closer now, almost within grasp.
A hint, perhaps, of what magic is yet to come, and very much a reminder of much magic that has been before, these little roses may very well be the scent of the season, or the year. While Tom Ford works his enchantment with this classic floral base in his current trio of Private Blends, let’s look back at the wonder of the rose.
The effervescent offering of ‘Rose & Cuir’ from Frederic Malle’s line is a fresh and summery take on the classic June rose, even as it lacks some of the leathery cuir aspect a few expected from such a name. For that more complex combo, Malle’s collection also has a darker rose scent for evenings, ‘Portrait of a Lady’, one that really only works in the more bewitching hours.
Back to Tom Ford, he’s been in the rose garden before, with his gorgeously smoky ‘Oud Fleur’ which is one of the fragrances that brought me into how exquisite, and modern, the rose can truly be. Such modernity moves into a timelessness that deserves celebration. We could use some of that indulgence this year.
In a thrilling halfpipe routine that left the commentators breathless, Japan’s Ayumu Hirano earned a gold medal in Beijing yesterday, solidifying an ascension to the previous perch of Shaun White. Hirano is crowned Dazzler of the Day for his impressive performance, especially as his second run was ridiculously under-scored and he came back to show the judges who was boss.
After conquering my fear of yeast and dough with this ensaymada moment, I turned my attention to a recipe that Suzie brought to us a while ago – a recipe that she has made for us twice already at my relentless urging. It’s a sweet Lemon Cardamom Roll that is simple of ingredient (the only things you may not have on hand are the lemons and cardamom and buttermilk, maybe the yeast if you’re like me) and relatively simple of assembly. The main thing I had to come to terms with in these yeast recipes is the double rise that is integral to puffy and light results. Before that, their appearance can be a little scary, and the first look at how they fill (or don’t quite fill) the prescribed 9″ x 13″ pan had me panic-texting Suzie.
It’s an exercise in patience and method, inhabiting and experiencing every step of the process, not rushing, and trusting in the yeast and the rise. The mindfulness that can be a part of baking has only just started to reveal itself. It’s something that Suzie has enjoyed for years, and one of the reasons her work turns out so well.
As for the second rise in this instance, it worked! The rolls spread out and filled their pan, and they weren’t done yet…
Swirls of sugar and lemon zest and cardamom, delineated by a layer of butter, is the perfect embodiment of hygge, and a lovely, cozy, comfort food designed for sharing. And still, it wasn’t quite done…
A cream cheese, powdered sugar and lemon juice frosting is the decadent touch that puts it right over the top. That only three ingredients could lead to such spectacular flavor is a marvel that never fails to thrill me. Baking is good for the soul.
She’s already won two gold medals at the last Olympic Games, but this world demands more of its champions, and that’s unfortunate. Simply making it to another Olympic Games is a feat in and of itself, and Mikaela Shiffrin should be honored and admired for that accomplishment alone. Instead, coverage of her first two non-qualifying runs has been awful at best, and shamefully cruel at worst. But her Olympic story isn’t over yet, and her deeply-felt emotional reaction to her human stumbles reveals the heart of a true champion, and for that she earns this Olympic Spotlight.
Repeating her gold win in the women’s snowboard halfpipe from 2018, Chloe Kim earned another gold medal in Beijing, handily crowning her this Dazzler of the Day in the process. Back-to-back Olympic medals, in gold no less, is a feat so spectacular I can’t quite get my head around it, other than to feel incredibly awestruck and simultaneously inspired. She is simply amazing.
“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” ~ Buddha
Behold the burgeoning beauty of Ficus benghalensis ‘Audrey’ – a specimen I procured a little over a year ago which has done decently in our front window, and marked the ticking of time in miraculous fashion. I only just noticed how much it had grown over the last year when I revisited the original post announcing its arrival. Back then, it was only a couple of inches high, with about six leaves held tightly to a central stem. As it became comfortable in its new home, it would unfurl a new leaf every month or two, until it arrived where we find it today – well over a foot tall with 17 full leaves (and a new arriving as seen below, indicating the start of another growing season.
I am usually better at keeping track of such growth, waiting with anxious anticipation and measuring growth in inches and leaves and blooms with annoyingly Virgo-like precision. For the Buddha tree, I’ve merely enjoyed its company, pausing beside it as I do my daily meditation – inspired into a calmer state simply from its pretty and peaceful countenance. Such a gorgeous green keeps me inspired during the dullest winter days. It also reminds me to be present in the moment, grounding my thoughts and worries, seeking to find a similar peace as the Buddha, seeking some state of enlightenment through the practice of mindfulness.
And so this happy little guy grew right before my eyes, and I didn’t even notice it. I don’t know if that’s because I was being more or less mindful, or whether my mindfulness was focused on what did or didn’t matter. Like the mangled roots these trees sometimes develop, some entanglements are best left alone.
As for the future plans for Miss Audrey, I’m going to allow him to grow a bit taller and see how well it attains a single-trunk tree form. At some point it may require staking to stabilize it, depending on high high and heavy it gets, and how thick the trunk develops. But these are thoughts and worries for another day.
For now, I’m offering gratitude for how far this plant has come in the past year – a journey that can only be seen in hindsight, if it needs to be seen at all. (Below is where we began a year ago.)
“If you forget the joy of life and get caught in the pleasures of the world, you will come to envy those who put meditation first.” ~ Buddha
This isn’t going to list all the links in which Zac Efron appears shirtless or naked on this site (click here for a more comprehensive link-list for that gratuitous stuff). Instead, enjoy a couple of relatively-recent shots of Efron in the water and fantasize about sunnier weather and swimsuit-ready bodies…
I love any Alan who spells his name correctly, so this Dazzler of the Day was an easy choice, and he comes highly recommended by several FaceBook friends. This is Alan Ritchson, who started out as an Abercrombie & Fitch model before bursting onto the entertainment scene in series such as ‘Smallville’ and ‘Titans’. He’s currently making a bigger splash as the title character on the Amazon series ‘Reacher’ and in this Dazzler of the Day feature, where his numerous attributes are quite impressively on display.
Getting enough fluids in the body on a daily basis seems to be a challenge for most people. (I’m decidedly not in this camp, as I luckily love water and get in at least 8 glasses a day.) For everyone else, making sure to receive enough of the wet stuff is a burden, and the only way others seem to make it happen is through soda and juice and other questionably-healthy alternatives. To ensure that we get as much as possible during these arid and dry air months, soup is a lovely option, doubling as a source of heat and coziness. Like a cup of hot tea, a bowl of soup seems to warm everything, from the heart to the mind to the body. Cradled in one’s hands, it is a comfort on the cold days at hand, and can be assembled in as simple or complex fashion as one deems worthy.
For the soup pictured here, I just put together a basic broth and added a hefty dose of greens (kale and spinach and boy choy) to get some of the vitamins we need. From there, the options are without limit – for some protein I used a seven-minute egg. If you’re looking for something slightly heartier, the addition of rice or noodles would work wonders, as would chicken or other poultry (turkey soup is an unheralded joy). And all the while you are getting some of that essential liquid to keep the body running well in the winter. Sip well.
