Ah, spring. A time for sticking your head out of the ground under which you have burrowed for the winter to sniff at the air. And what does it smell like, my woodland creature?
Change.
While a part of me would rather give a dirty look to those green shoots coming out of the earth and roll over for another snooze, the vibrancy and tenaciousness of growth all around is somewhat contagious. It’s time to Do Stuff. But what?
Life’s ambitions seem to be multifold, multistage, multifarious endeavours. Where to begin? And there are so many potentialities: make money, travel, get married, make babies, be successful in your career field, wah wah wah…
This is when that groundhole starts to look reeeaaal cozy.
Really though, I’m not sure if I want any of those things. Or to be more accurate, they are conditional desires. I would like to make money, but just enough so I don’t have to stress about the cost of buying organic celery over conventional. I would like to travel, but only to realize that the world doesn’t revolve around me and there is much more to learn and be inspired by. I would like to get married, but only if we can see ourselves being only mild to moderately sick of eachother in twenty years. I am terrified of making babies (buns only in convection ovens, please). I would like to have a successful career, in that I have done my job wholeheartedly every day, with unwaning faith in what I’m doing.
Ultimately, my life ambition is to be a Good Person. Good to myself, and to others. How come there’s no Bachelor’s degree or salary for that?! Harumph!
It really is all quite overwhelming. So much to do, so little time! One must take baby steps. If I learned anything from high school Guidance class, it’s that when approaching one’s endeavours efficiently, it requires the breakdown of large tasks into smaller tasks. So if you will indulge me, here is some modest Guidance to that end:
How to get Things done:
1. Start with a clean work space. It’s hard to wash lettuce/rinse noodles/fill the kettle with water when the sink is crammed with remnants of meals past. Wipe the slate clean.
2. Start each day right.
Which, let’s face it, means breakfast. How can one achieve higher echelons of professional, mental, moral, spiritual development if one’s belly is crying for sustenance? It is nigh impossible. And being a staunch proponent of carbohydrates and their nutritional value on multiple levels, varying from the physical energy boost to the emotional coddling provided, I think breakfast muffins would be an excellent send-off into the day. Nothing stands a chance to the steadfast support that their stubby stumps impart.
Breakfast Muffins
6 tbsp vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
1/3 cup water
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
Other good things: lemon zest, seeds (pumpkin, flax, sesame, sunflower, poppy), nuts, raisins, chocolate chips, rolled oats…
Mix together all the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet until just incorporated. Pour batter into a greased muffin tin. Sprinkle over the Good Things you so desire (or stir them into the batter, if you’d rather). Bake in a preheated 350 F oven for about 15 minutes, until golden. Let cool before serving. A smear of butter or jam would certainly be welcome here.
Eat over the now empty sink, basking in the optimism of fluffy sweetness and plotting the attack on your to-do list.
Go get ‘em, tiger.