UNWRAP YOURSELF

UNWRAP YOURSELF 

By Miles Patrick Yohnke

We arrive not totally wired nor totally assembled like an electric jigsaw puzzle. And thru life we are just trying to figure out how all our pieces go together. A boxing match within our own mind. We human beings all beat ourselves up. This is how it feels at times. From jabs of fear to uppercuts of doubt. It's all there.

So are the crosses of joy and hope. God placed it all in your mind. One will go many rounds sparring with oneself. But it is a good fight. Internal ugliness will be knocked down and our beauty will prevail, if one chooses to fight the good fight.

Broken fragments of what we were. One climbs out from their bed of black, found in the city of death. An unknown nobody is how we feel. The burden of our own self can feel like a monster not just a monkey on our back. The madness numbs us in ways we can't imagine and yet yesterday one was loaded with care.

Like the choice of choosing to walk on the sunny side or upon the side of shadows. This is the beauty of the mind. The blessings of the living. Turn your weaknesses into your strengths. Success is failure turned inside out. Life is sure interesting, isn't it? Surrender. Surrender. It starts there.

By one simply saying I don't have all the answers. I don't know why I do what I do, but I want to know. I'm tired of making the same mistakes over and over. I'm tired of my mind being like this. I'm tired of the same song being sung in my head. I'm tired of doing laps in my pity-pool. So we start unlearning what we were taught. We start being less of a victim (well-meaning parents, teachers, society - ourselves) and start understanding ourselves.

If one is really living, one is looking to others or into themselves for a challenge. A challenge to be better. To be more. Far more. We may not really know the full impact we can have on each other until much later on in our life (or even after death).

Each of us starts out as strangers to each other. We respond and interact and allow each other into our lives and little miracles occur. We learn and teach one another. We challenge each other to be better and be more. When people accept that they don't have all the answers and start seeking out other sources for their own betterment they have moved forward.

A simple gesture like signing up to a self-help or inspirational website for example demonstrates that "I'm a seeker, I'm looking for help. I don't know all the answers but I'm going to be more than I was yesterday." To be someone making an impact on this world you have to surrender to your own limitations first. Learn from them and pass on what you have done to become more to others. Be accountable. Accountable to yourself.

Some time ago I was recording a vocal performance. It was a mid-tempo song. With heartfelt lyrics. A real nice song. Take after take and an afternoon goes by. I replied, "You have written a great song here, but I don't believe you, your delivery or performance. It's just on the surface. It's not believable." I told him to go back. Reflect. Take yourself back to the place you were with pen and paper when you wrote it.

The next morning we recorded it and pretty much nailed it in one take (we punched in a few touch-up lines). He was in tears doing that track. He had been in tears when writing it he remembered. To be real - you have to surrender. Then and only then does your work or life take on the right meaning. This includes parenting. Anything. Sadly most of life is just on the surface.

This is why McDonald's is so popular. Garbage in. Garbage out. This is why the drink, the drug, the food is so popular. We as people should be far more than this. We must be. It starts by surrendering.

Let's create anew. Let's enrich the minds and souls of all mankind. Let us gift-wrap that. Let us place that under the tree of mankind. Let us witness iPeace. iCare. iLove. iSurrender. These are the real Christmas gifts. Christmas comes each day if one surrenders.

Wednesday Wisdom

Wednesday Wisdom: 

10 Tidbits We Learned Living in Italy -- 

X. Not every oil is extra virgin. 
IX. Slow simmer creates the sauce. 
VIII. People, not just pasta, make dinner memorable. 
VII. Cappuccino for the AM, caffe corretto at night.
VI. Grandma knows best. Always.
V. Quality takes time, care and high standards.
IV. Treat strangers like family you haven't yet met.
III. Cheese makes pretty much everything better.
II. Build you life around relationships, not money.
I. Say GRAZIE daily--it will sweeten your life (and those around you).

Fun Fact

FUNFACT: 
Traditional mozzarella, produced in Southern Italy's Campania region, is made from the milk of water buffalo--not cows 🐮🚫. Buffalo milk is thicker and creamier than its cow counterpart -- making for an extra addictive cheese.

Fun Fact

FUNFACT: 
The lemons of the AmalfiCoast are a unique variety-- long and at least twice the size of usual lemons. They boast an intense perfume and sweet flesh. Cultivated in terraced gardens along the coast, the fruit are picked from February to October. The Amalfi lemon is a key part of the cuisine of this coast: the juice, the flesh, the peel, and even the leaves are used in its cooking.

Let's Plan a Trip to Paris

Let's Plan a Trip to Paris

Lesson #5 (last lesson)

Day 9: Easy to Evolution

Morning

Have a chill morning. In good weather, go to the Paris Plages for Seine River urban beach-combing, take a bicycle tour or stroll the Latin Quarter. In poor weather, make tracks to the industrial-design-themed Musée des Arts et Métiers (60 Rue Réaumur, Metro: Arts et Métiers.

Afternoon

After lunch, proceed to the Natural History Museum’s Gallery of Evolution (57 Rue Cuvier, Metro: Jussieu). You’ve never seen a stuffed animal collection like this one. It’s a solid two-hour visit and literal jaw-dropper.

Evening

From the museum, go left on Rue Cuvier until it dead ends at Rue Linne. Take a quick left on Rue Linne, followed by a quick right on Rue Lacépède. Follow this road to Place de la Contrescarpe, a circle surrounded by bustling restaurants and cafes. Go left on to Rue Mouffetard, a classic Parisian market street that was originally a Roman road. Pick a cafe or brasserie with an ambience and menu to your liking.

***
Day 10: Meandering Montmartre

Morning

From Blanche Metro station in Montmartre, take a picture in front of the Moulin Rouge’s iconic windmill. Then walk up, and I do mean up, Rue Lepic until it hits Rue des Abbesses. Take a right. Get baguette sandwiches for lunch and pains au chocolat for now at Grenier à Pain – arrive by 8am. Yes, there will be a line. Yes, it’s worth the wait.

Devour those ridiculously tasty pains while walking down Rue des Abbesses. Cross through Place des Abbesses to Rue Yronne le Tac, continue to Rue Tardieu and on to Place Saint-Pierre. Ride the funicular (spare Metro tickets work) up the hill to just below Sacré-Cœur.

At the gleaming white basilica that’s been lingering in the distance your whole trip, tour the interior, then line up for the dome climb, located down the stairs to the left of the main entrance.

Afternoon

Enjoy the epic view and eat your sandwiches – made with baguettes named the best in Paris in 2015 – on the steps in front of Sacré-Cœur.

Take touristy, meandering backstreets down – first back past Sacré-Cœur then left at Rue du Chevalier de la Barre, left at Rue du Mont Cenis and right at Rue Norvins toward world-famous Place du Tertre (peruse paintings, have a drink) before descending Rue du Calvaire. Explore Montmartre’s side streets. Shop. Get lost. Head back to Place des Abbesses to ride the carousel.

Evening

Eventually make your way back to Rue Lepic – where it makes a big dog-leg turn – for dinner atLa Mandigotte (68 Rue Lepic), an authentic haven in Montmartre’s touristy restaurant scene. Return to Blanche station for the Metro home.

***

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Let's Plan A Trip To Paris

Let's Plan A Trip To Paris

Lesson #4

Day 7: In the Garden of Paris, Baby

All Day

Pack a picnic lunch and spend the day in Luxembourg Garden(Metro: Odéon or RER B: Luxembourg). Enjoy a relaxing, no-itinerary day – catch a puppet (“marionette”) show, ride the carousel, pop a bottle of wine, watch old-timers play "boules," nap in the sun.

After you’ve had your Luxembourg fill, walk into the adjacent Latin Quarter for dinner. Exit the park’s east side at a roundabout on Rue de Medicis. Walk across the roundabout to Rue Soufflot. Walk three blocks to Rue Saint-Jacques and take a left.

You’ll pass the Paris-Sorbonne University on your left, a reminder of how the Latin Quarter earned its name. During the middle ages, this area was the rare intellectual hotbed and scholars at the time spoke the only civilized, written language in the West, Latin. All that Latin-speak earned the nickname that persists today.

Just before reaching Rue des Ecoles, take a right on Place Marcelin Berthelot until it ends at Rue Jean de Beauvais. Cross this street, take a slight right, then an immediate left onto charming Rue de Lanneau, a narrow, atmospheric corridor. There are several quaint restaurants, cafes and brassieres in the area, but I like the rustic hole-in-the-wall, Le Petit Prince de Paris (12 Rue de Lanneau).

Walk three blocks north to Boulevard Saint-Germain to take the Metro home at Maubert – Mutualité station.

***

Day 8: Art Blitz II

Morning

Begin the day early at the Orangerie Museum (Metro: Concorde) for impressionist and post-impressionist heavyweights like Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso. But everyone comes here for Monet’s spectacular "Water Lilies."

Afternoon

Eat a picnic lunch in the sprawling former royal grounds, Tuileries Garden, designed around an unbroken central axis that runs right to the Louvre.

Walk to the overwhelming Louvre Museum and follow one of the museum's excellent audioguide tours and don't miss the obvious: "Mona Lisa" and "Venus de Milo." Art lovers should consider a guide-led group or private tour because this place is immense.

Evening

Did all that art make you hungry? Go to the Louvre’s basement for quite possibly the best food court in Europe, Restaurants du Monde au Carrousel de Louvre (99 Rue de Rivoli). Choose from crepes, Indian food, whole-roasted chickens all in a convenient and affordable food court.

After dinner, head back above ground to Tuileries Garden for after-dark amusement park rides and French carnival sweets. You've earned it. Take the Metro home at Tuileries station.