the two whos

Wed 1 Sep 2010

Mid-Week Symphony: What a Wonderful World!

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Yun takes a longer route to go home after dropping her kids at school, because she wants to say “Thank you!” to the police woman who is guarding the school crossing. She also likes to see this woman’s bright smiling face when she greets the children as they cross the street. As she watches, Yun remembers this song that Louis Armstrong sings.

When we see the world and life through the eyes of gratitude, every word in Louis Armstrong’s song “What a Wonderful World!” rings of truth.

About The Mid-Week Symphony: Since Wednesday is the middle of the week, we have decided to take a moment and have a bit of down time from the writing. Each Wednesday, we would like to bring you a symphony of ideas, a harmony of thoughts, beauty, silliness and all things that make the fullness of life. When we started this blog we wanted it to reflect our entire personalities and interests..and that means yes…. Cece loves the Far Side Cows and Yun loves the mumble jumble philosophical books. Yun and Cece have many varied interests and we would like to share some of them with you each Wednesday.

Tue 31 Aug 2010

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? Part 2

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You may remember the great discussion Yun and Cece had over why did the chicken cross the road? Well, the topic has come up again!
Previously, it was decided that maybe the chicken crossed the road to bring world peace since the making of chicken soup crosses many different cultures. Cece can just see this chicken thumbing its way across various countries!

Anyway, it is getting colder in New Mexico and it is time to make soup again! As she remembered this post, Cece found herself giggling as she picked out an organic chicken in the market this morning.

But what does making soup have to do with peace making? Yun thinks that chicken soup is a symbol for love and that it crosses all cultures. So, Cece thinks the chicken crosses the road to bring love and peace between cultures and if only people could sit down together and talk over the soup, perhaps healing could occur! Maybe simplistic thinking, but why not simple?

Cece sets out to make a chicken soup from a different culture every so often. So as she got her chicken, she decided to make Chicken soup that has a Vietnamese influence. She also decides to do her own thing and adds leeks to the stock.

Make your chicken soup from scratch or use prepared stock that you add to. Add your dumplings or noodles. Once the soup is served into each bowl, put a combination of the following aromatic herbs and vegetables on top: fresh jalapeno pepper slices, bean sprouts, mint, basil, snow peas, slices of onion, cilantro. All the aromatic herbs will release their flavors into the hot soup!

We can look throughout the world every day…every minute of the day… and see war and violence and killing at the neighborhood , state and global levels…but let’s begin simply.Let’s begin with ourselves. Find some friends who have different opinions than you do and sit down and have some soup and conversation together. And as you are sharing your soup and conversation with people you have differences with, ask yourself, “ Am I going to practice peace or am I going to practice War?” Let’s begin there and be there.

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

Mon 30 Aug 2010

Don’t Worry. Be Happy?

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In 1988, a song came over the air waves by Bobby McFerrin called “Don’t Worry. Be Happy.” The song was a simple solution to complex problems, but was a good song to remember when things got hard and you needed to lighten up a bit! It was the first a cappella song to make it big! Part of the lyrics are “in every life we have some trouble….” and The Whos thought of this song as they wrote this post.

It has been raining cats and dogs lately. So, you hear lots of cheers as well as lots of curses. People have their own reasons and their own likes and dislikes, so we are happy and not happy accordingly.

A friend of Yun’s loves swimming. She would swim everyday if she could. So, Sunny days are her best friends. She is as cheerful as the sunshine, bubbling with joy for life. The past months have been unpleasant for her with all the rain and thunder and overcasting sky. You hear her complaints more about things in life. It seems when the Sun and clouds are not collaborating, nothing else in the world works. She has the excuse to be unhappy, and she makes it clear and she sticks to it.

Well, it so happens, that an old friend of Yun’s is a gardener! He loves gardening and has a house on the hill with lots of land to tinker with. However, friends joke with him and call him “such a grumpy old man” because he has such strong political positions. Unfortunately, our political environment has not been to his liking for many years. But lately, instead of politics, he sings the praises of how wonderful the rain has been, how refreshing the air smells and how lush his garden is now….On and on, he is beaming with cheers and joy. He is happy for a very good reason, and he makes clear of that.

One day, after a chat with both of them back to back, Yun starts to laugh and marvel at the human’s incredible capacity to be happy or to be unhappy. The physicist Yun said to the artist Cece, ” It is almost like in scientific research… one makes a hypothesis, and starts to design an experiment to collect data to prove the hypothesis. In most cases, one manages to find the data to prove that your hypothesis is correct!” Cece giggles too.

Why is it that we allow our minds to take such control of us that we determine our happiness by the rain or the current political climate or whether we can swim or not? What if we enjoyed each moment as it presents itself…and what if we could be here now…and relish in the very moment we are in…whether we are driving or walking or working or doing a repetitive task? Could we perhaps find joy in those little moment by moment things that are happening right now? What if our mind went astray and went to being unhappy about the political climate? Could we re-direct it into the here and now and focus on this moment only?

If we decide to be happy, we will find the reasons. If we decide not to be happy, we can find the reasons too…. The reasons for both are only in our mind’s eyes. Make sure that what your mind’s eye sees is working for you… not against you “Don’t worry, be happy” and make it so!

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

Sat 28 Aug 2010

Saturday Morning Rendezvous with: A Day at the Farm!

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Cece works at an agency that supports people with disabilities. It is a multi- faceted agency that provides many services and supports. One part of the agency that is in Corrales, has 4 greenhouses. In the fall, they grow over 8000 poinsettia! Through out the year they grow organic wheat grass that gets sold to wheat grass lovers and then the majority is sold to Keva Juice. They also grow lots of bedding plants and flowers year round.

Recently they were gifted with an organic farm! Many departments at the agency have taken turns going out to the farm to team build and do some weeding. As they found out this morning, weeds abound! In the midst of the weeds are asparagus and berries, garlic, tomatoes and other veggies. They sell this produce to local restaurants.

The management team arrived at the farm! Some had experience…. and some realized they were better off behind a desk!

Cece received instruction in how to wield a hoe and then it was determined that she would do better with a wheel barrow. She learned that once her weeds were picked up and piled and balanced perfectly in her wheelbarrow, then she would cart them a way. Others were pulling weeds in other rows and when she would come back down the cleaned up row, she discovered that more weeds would be thrown “willy nilly” into her cleaned up row…a metaphor for life…often we have to deal with other people’s weeds. But , we have to focus on pulling up the weeds in our own lives, taking the trash out to the curb and then being willing to let the garbage man take the trash away rather than to hold onto it…..all life lessons that need to be learned and re-learned in our lives.

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

The Saturday Morning Rendezvous will be a place to stop in and meet up on a weekend morning. Have a cup of tea or coffee, a special breakfast, and relax and catch up from the week’s fast pace. The Two Whos will focus Saturday’s content on physical wellness , food and fitness of all types. Come back and rendezvous with us! See you next Saturday! Thanks for visiting.

Fri 27 Aug 2010

Birthday Cake? A Piece of Cake!

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Gavin is turning 9. Yun is having a similar dilemma regarding what to buy her younger son as she did when her older son turned 10 (A gift that arouse deep appreciation of a 10 year old?). Yun is lost again. Since Gavin’s father will be hosting a swimming party for Gavin’s classmates a week later, she knows he will get lots of gifts then! Yun has decided that ” over gifting” …with all these toys for kids is over rated when celebrating one’s birthday. What could she do then to make the birthday special for him?

Friends are what come to Yun’s mind. So, Yun called upon a couple of old friends, whose boys were in preschool together with Gavin. She invited the boys over as a surprise for Gavin. One of the families moved out of town for three or so years and just moved back to town… So, the boys have not seen seen each other for about 3 years. That’s a very long time for a 9 year old!

“It is not a traditional birthday party, so no presents please. Just your presence would be greatly appreciated.” Having said that to her friends, Yun felt the need to explain to Gavin about having a birthday celebration but without birthday presents. Gavin’s eyes opened wide upon hearing such an outlandish idea or nonsense, “what? No presenst for a birthday party?”

“Well, no toy presents, that is. But people’s presence would be a nice present by itself, isn’t it?: Yun is trying to convey the message as clear as she can….that the child’s friendship is the gift. “I guess.” the boy says reluctantly. It is hard for him to look at a birthday celebration differently since all he knows about birthday celebrations is nothing but about ice cream cake and presents.

Also, parents are often tempted to invite many little ‘friends’ over, so to see the birthday child’s face lit up seeing a pile of birthday presents, much like Christmas presents. Yun wonders what else could we bring that puts sparkles into a child’s eye besides the glittering wrapping papers and ribbons? Well, when Gavin greets his “old” friends at the door, he begins to understand that their friendship is the gift and his eyes are sparking with pure joy and innocence!

Oh,but let’s not forget the cake! This time, no store brought mini cheese cake. Although Yun does not bake, that does not stop her from making a birthday cake for Gavin on the morning of his birthday. You should have seen Gavin’s eyes light up seeing the candle lit cake ! His mouth was wide open and salivating! He blew out the candles and he ate the whole cake just as Yun has expected! Well, Gavin is a good eater, unlike his brother, but a whole cake for breakfast?

Off course! Why not? Especially if you make the cake with brown rice, decorated with “Gavin’s favorite chili oil” or the “I do not know chili oil” and soy sauce! That’s his most favorite food in the “whole wild world”. Gavin says it is the world’s weirdest cake, and he loves it. Happy birthday, Gavin!

Cece wonders what’s the next crazy idea Yun will have for the boys birthday next year? Noodle cake or a day of working at a food bank? Who knows…Yun is trying to teach her children that gifts that glitter are not to be depended on to create happiness. More and more stuff does not make one more and more happy!

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

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