A point of view

Half Mountain or Mysterious Peak by @Maggiehongkong

I love imagining things. I love making names up. I love interpreting. I love finding connections in various ways. I might have no limits in doing it, yet I tend to capture quickly with mind a metaphor, or a logical context, a way to retain this memory and keep dear to myself this present moment.

I found myself last year at a beautiful retreat in Spain, in a divine and unexpected setting overlooking the Montserrat mountains. Every moment was unique. There was an smooth flow of changes , imperceptible at times, changing very fast suddenly depending on what was approaching. One minute immersed in the clouds, another minute a slow moving sun penetrating behind the curtains and keeping our hopes on hold for full disclosure. I loved when the peaks were immersing in the clouds and I was imagining that we can too be suddenly embraced the same way and disappear for a while, hiding our heads just for a moment.

The image above is our “local Montserrat” on Lantau island, and depending where your home might be, we can get closer or not from the clouds. This walk towards our own Montserrat entices my dreams once again, at any time of day or evening, and brings this question back”could we touch the clouds?”. There must be a book somewhere about our fascination with all things “cloud-like” ,other than internet. Worth mentioning too as a romantic way of looking at things ( we all know how unbearable would be to breathe once we find ourselves in the humid clouds of Lantau).

I have started recently to reshape and rename the way I perceive a lot of things, events, situations, in the pursuit of getting me closer to reality.

My rose-pink glasses are wonderful and I vow to keep them on as much as possible also to make sense of life and honour joy.

My reading glasses on the other hand, offer me a nuanced clarity that promise a balance equally needed and more often than not, quite necessary and vital.

How is so?

Checking in casually and studying some of my habits ,I am on the verge of finding innovative perspectives on measuring things for example. Just a drop of pattern analysis gain nowadays a lot of ground with me. At the risk of boring you.

• Concocting a spontaneous meal versus preparing a menu for a gathering. The spontaneous impromptu looks like it has been cooked with reading glasses on - having only limited resources in the fridge or in the cupboard, even without a proper scale or clear measurements, the result brings optimal balance. There is no waste, not much left-overs, tailored to the hour of the day, the mood and the desire to eat of the customer ( in this case, mostly one person), I excel at making everything right , instinctively. I do remember occasionally my mum’s remarks - “half carrot is more than enough for this soup, we use the other half for something else tomorrow. “

• Preparing a menu, dreaming of combinations of flavours and taste, imagining plating and roughly taking into consideration the number of guests for a medium gathering let us say, it has the rose-pink glasses effect! I see possibilities, new innovative ideas emerge every minute, and confronted with a choice of produce, I excel this time at abundance. Oh, that too. Perhaps that fennel will also offer an interesting twist.If there is fennel, I would need let’s say a good Spanish blood orange. Would fish be enough, of course not. Let me also add a pack of prawns. What do I do with one pack, make it two. In this particular case ,I rarely remember” half carrot is more than enough”. As I made roasted carrots and then I need one kilogram perhaps? The delight in bringing all these elements together and anticipating a wonderful dinner brings me also tremendous joy. As you could easily understand by comparison, this is joy with a twist of out of balance.

  Both traditions were transmitted from generation to generation. The approach for “only me” and the approach for “a group”,so different.

• The way I have started making sense, as a conclusion of this brilliant insightful study is by rearranging the measurement criteria.Of course, money is a very easy way to measure everything, definitely for some. Not applicable here. There must be another way.

• First option - is there leftover? Generally speaking, there is not much leftover as we share with our guests even the leftovers. As we mentioned, traditions are kept solid in our circle.

• Second option - how many days can my cooking last? My reference from the days in the office was” until Thursday” - that was a very good measure. If Tuesday was becoming suddenly the “ empty fridge” day, I could then translate that into “ that was an out of balance shopping spree”.

  Not too worry. I love documenting how I also make sense of everything. The rules are not that strict however.

• Third option - there is congee! When there is an alarming alarming empty fridge on a Saturday because I tend to rush for a late ferry …. There is always congee… and this is clearly a success from any perspective, once you live here long enough. It just brings me so much comfort.

• I do have other solutions that I have started recently to implement.

  If I need to understand better, for me, the true meaning of an investment let us say ( just do not think anything grandiose here), I turn to this question: “how many plane tickets to Europe would that mean” ?

  Let us say,I am evaluating embarking on a new course, training. I can quickly see that would be around 3-4 plane tickets! Oh, that hurt suddenly. It somehow hit me in my solar plexus. I would need to rethink my entire strategy. It hurt my dream temporarily and it gave me an opportunity to seize new values for better ticket ratio.

  As weird as it might sound, if I only see the plain amount explained in any currency, that does not impact me the same way.

  In a way or another, from this perspective, should I spend 3 plane tickets on something, it should be long term, and also bring me great benefits as I would rather prefer instead to be able to fly and see my people. We took of course a median approach, a generic average for a plane tickets economy class. There are tickets and tickets.

  The moment I reported everything to a plane ticket, to something that I value dearly, I have generated almost a third alternative, a hybrid form of glasses - reading but rose-pink glasses. They offer enhanced clarity, even of a cloudy day. They offer joy and also they support me in making better choices. Saying this with sincere hope. I can say “yes” or I can say”no” honouring the measurement scoop that works best for me. “The plane ticket” method.

  Safe travels dear everyone ….

  Last and not least, definitely make it top of your list, I would even say….

  A sweet reminder to join my new platform One Kind Voice and check the June newsletter in your inbox. I am offering 30 minutes guided meditations every Sunday at 9.30pm (HKT) and you can find the link here on Eventbrite(open in the browser recommended) .

  Online Live Meditation with One Kind Voice