French Taste by Laura Calder
Steph got this for me for Christmas, and I am just now finally able to sit down with a cup of tea, toast (with lots of butter) and a soft boiled egg, ready to run my hands through its soft, elegant pages and take in the smell of the press (a favourite past-time).
At this time of the year, a lot of us are contemplating what we’ll do different this time around; what we can improve, attempt to define what we want, and configure the necessary steps to get there.
Over the last 5 or 6 months or so, once a week I do two hours of Yoga. Among the many things I have learned in the practice, one of them is “paying attention”. Stop. Breath. Listen to the quiet. Feel the heart thrumping. And in this, I have found the importance, or the value in, taking pleasure.
It may be cliché to go on about pleasure, but I do feel it is the secret to living well. (And I say this fully aware that pursuing it is more easily said than done.) At its most basic, the natural human pursuit of pleasure is what makes the body prefer a ripe fruit over a rotten one (a very practical feat of genetic engineering, that). At a higher level of evolution, it’s what makes a person bother to stop, sit down at a table, and enjoy a sandwich off a plate with some dignity, rather than rip at one like a bloodhound while simultaneously driving a car through a deluge and phoning the cleaners about the overcoat dropped off last Wednesday. (We all have our desparate moments, fair enough, but you’d have to be a masochist to make a habit of them.)
French Taste: Elegant Everyday Eating Laura Calder
How To Eat, French Taste by Laura Calder
So my resolution for this year: take pleasure in everything. But wait. I don’t mean to say that I will quit my job, eat roast every night while polishing off a bottle of wine, and then partake in lusty entertainment. A Taurus like me, must take heed to avoid the fall into pure hedonism - it is no laughing matter.
Rather, when I have my breakfast, I will not gobble and think about my day ahead of me and all the bloody things I have to do, and give myself a stomach ache to boot. I will sit down, and savor the thick, creamy, silky ball of yolk. I will warm my hands on my favorite coffee mug and experience what the good, brown liquid does to me; comfort, warmth, relaxation, nostalgia, home.
Par example: today I have a great deal of sanding, plastering and painting to do. I HATE it. I cannot tell you how much I hate doing it. It is ironic that I, who loves to make paintings, am the worst house painter in the world. I have no patience for it. But rather than do the job in frustration which will most probably guarantee a shitty outcome, I’ll get into my grubby painting clothes, put on some tunes and a happy face, and take pleasure in it.
4 Comments
Big sigh. I need to make this my own resolution. It really does feel great when I remember to do it. Sometimes, as with books and mags, I don’t have to remind myself. But doing mundane things, or working, as I’ve been doing non-stop since the 26th, I have to stop and remind myself. It’s bloody hard.
Enjoy the painting! Think of the outcome. That’s what excites me. I can’t wait to paint here, even though I too dislike it.
Glad the book is so beautiful and tasteful (and tasty!).
It is bloody hard. And I’m sure I’ll break the resolution several times over and over. But at least I can start the habit.
I go back to work tomorrow and am DREADING it.
The book is such that you can sit down and read it cover to cover. I love it.
I was dreading work too, for the entire time I was off, which was four days. So what are we going to do about it? We need to get together and get a business plan going for the etsy thing and brainstorm a cool name, too.
I know, and I need to get to the drawing table - ahem, literally! I’ll email you some things I’m thinking of….
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