mulberryshoots

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" ~ Mary Oliver
March 23, 2012

fortune . . .


It was eighty-four degrees outside while I drove back from Brookline after my shiatsu treatment yesterday. It’s the third week in March and it felt like the middle of May! Since it was so warm outside, I decided to swing by one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in Framingham and pick up something for dinner on the way home. I ordered three cold appetizer dishes that weren’t on the regular “take-out” menu: drunken chicken, pickled szechuan cabbage, braised bean curd skin and some brown rice.

When I arrived home, I opened my mail, and in it was a beat-up paperback translation of the “Tao te Ching” dating to the 1960’s that I had found online by chance. I browsed Read the rest of this entry »

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March 20, 2012

charmed again . . .

happy spring!


So from today’s events, I am wondering if I might be having a lucky streak. This afternoon, I told G. that I was going to do my food shopping for our supper at the Vietnamese grocery in town because it was so much cheaper than going to chain stores. It’s not in the safest part of town, but I drove the back way going by the local college a few blocks down from the shop and found a parking space directly across the street. It had suffered a fire a few years back and it’s been awhile before being rebuilt and back in business again.

Inside, I bought a few things: a pack of fresh chicken thighs, a couple of slender Japanese eggplants, a head of garlic, a bunch of scallions, a dozen jumbo brown eggs and 8-10 very large shrimp to stir fry with garlic, scallions and ginger tonight. That was enough fresh ingredients for two dinners and then some. When I was checking out, the cashier gave me a broad smile and started chanting at me, “You very lucky! lucky! lucky!” I was mystified but then she told me my total bill was $11.11. She kept going, “very lucky! four eights or four ones together: very lucky!” The other customers around me smiled too.

Walking back to my car, I thought about this little bit of hoopla and chuckled to myself. Maybe I am lucky, I said to myself. We’ll see. It’s hard to believe so many high quality ingredients could be had for just $11.11, let alone that the numbers symbolized good luck, don’t you think?

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March 19, 2012

charmed . . .

freed at last


Have you ever had something that you thought was bad happen to you, and it turned out to be something really good instead?

The other day, I was preoccupied, driving on a country lane while measuring distances to put onto directions for a friend who would be visiting soon. I passed a police car on the side of the road but thought little about it until he pulled me over about a mile past where he had been sitting. Turns out I was going over the 30 mile an hour speed limit. I was annoyed with myself and also resigned as I opened the glove compartment of the car to give him my registration. Turned out that the registration was out of date too. Fortunately, my husband, G. had taped a “State Troopers Are Our Friends” placard on the window behind the driver side. I guess this has saved him from getting a ticket in the past. It seemed to work this time Read the rest of this entry »

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March 14, 2012

backyard . . .


Someone once said on a greeting card or somewhere that “utopia is in your own backyard.”

I never gave it much thought until recently when I found myself searching for something only to discover that I already had it, or at least a passable version of the sought-after item. This could be a silver fork in a certain pattern (“past and present”) or when declaiming about my efforts to write a book when writing posts on this blog has become what one reader calls my “metier,” one that feels like a good fit for me.

I guess the antipode to utopia being in my own backyard is “the grass is always greener.” That is, whatever you have is (always) not quite enough. And somewhere, perhaps over the internet, or at the local drugstore will you run into Read the rest of this entry »

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March 13, 2012

retreat . . .


I have learned an important observation about progressing through life from studying the I-Ching. And that is to be still when it’s time to be still. I think that we all recognize times when movement forward is not happening. Or that a next move is up to someone else or forces that are externally beyond our control. In America, the cultural norm is to think of progress as a straight line trajectory up and away, all the time. But in real life, it doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes, the most appropriate stance we can take is to be still.

Retreat into oneself can be an act of strength, not weakness as often interpreted in the West. Preserving one’s integrity while holding still is one of the most powerful concepts that I have learned from reading about Zen, the Tao-te-Ching and other lessons from the I-Ching. Keeping one’s flame alight, although hidden, is a way to get through situations when everyone around you is not of your kind or who are Read the rest of this entry »

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March 11, 2012

a home . . .


Truth be told, one of my vices is magazines. Not such an expensive addiction, but one that I have confessed to for a long time. It’s probably not as costly as shopping for shoes or something like that. Here is what magazines do for me: they take me to a very different place. Australia, for example, where the culture of the place and people are captured within a magazine, a journal of a place and time, so to speak. I have been clipping pictures and articles, recipes and wish-list items for years and pasted them into my commonplace journals. When I look at these large spiral-bound treasure troves of what I was thinking about in those days, it is astonishing to observe how much has realized itself, or become part of my life, almost without my knowing when it might have occurred.

Today, I was looking at a couple of Australian magazines saved from 2009. There were so many bits of inspiration. Can’t wait to start filling my new blank book that has been sitting around for just the right Read the rest of this entry »

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March 8, 2012

eggs . . .

eggs benedict for christmas brunch


As you can see from previous posts like “oeufs en gelee” and “boiling an egg,” I’m fond of eggs. Really fresh, organic eggs.

There’s a barnyard farm kind of place in one of the towns nearby that I go to buy a couple of dozen extra large eggs every two weeks or so. When little Josie was visiting, her breakfast was some freshly sauteed baby spinach added to some scrambled eggs and grated cheese for breakfast. Sometimes the eggs are so big there are double yolks. So you can see how much I love fresh eggs.

josie, waiting for breakfast


scrambled eggs, spinach and cheese for josie's breakfast

A week or so ago, I received an email from the owners of the little egg buying place. There’s a small room with fridges where you go in and buy eggs on the honor system, leaving either money or a check sealed in Read the rest of this entry »

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March 6, 2012

magical thinking . . .


Even though I grew up in America, I am Chinese-born and am infused with Taoist beliefs and a healthy regard for a Cosmos that I am guided by when I pay attention to what is going on around me. Years ago, I had a bout of viral meningitis which only went away when I took concoctions of Chinese medicinal herbs. I had read a book called “The Web That Has No Weaver” about Traditional Chinese Medicine and met its author, Ted Kaptchuk when he was setting up a department to study alternative medicines at Harvard Medical School.

Recently, my shiatsu practitioner suggested a Chinese herb called “Restore Integrity,” to bring me back to a former self, prior to undertaking a life of over-responsibility, both personally and professionally. The Read the rest of this entry »

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March 1, 2012

seeing green . . .


Even though this winter has been unseasonably mild (hallelujah!) a friend and I went to the Lyman Greenhouse at Smith College, Northampton, MA a couple of weeks ago, a place usually reserved for snowbound winters. I had thought there were more exotic plants–or at least slightly unusual ones but most of what we saw was commonplace. That is, I had seen most of the plants somewhere before. The place was also looking a little rundown but maybe that was my imagination.

In any case, I took a few photos and downloaded them onto my IPhoto file. Then forgot about them. Yesterday, some of these images came onto my screensaver, slowly zooming in and out. And I swear, I could almost smell the fragrant, damp air of the greenhouse. It seemed like an oasis of plants. So, I thought Read the rest of this entry »

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February 29, 2012

the Dao . . .


I’ve been feeling a little virtuous lately because all week, I’ve been doing scheduled tasks on the actual day that I intended to do them. Most mornings, I eye the “to-do” boxes and move them to the next day or later in the week.

Yesterday, I cleaned up the word document for the first year’s text of the blog. I put together and sent my 2011 tax info to my accountant and mailed it. I didn’t spend any money all day except at the post office. I resisted getting a Dairy Queen cone dipped in chocolate to reward myself for getting my tax stuff done.

Today, I took boxes of books that were congregated downstairs in the entry halls to donate to the Worcester Public Library. I was greeted at the loading dock by friendly and helpful people who thanked me Read the rest of this entry »

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