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Body and Soul

“Modern beings have forgotten their beautiful and simple natures. The only way to live is by living fully. We should create our lives into a festival of growth and permanent creation.”

—Chamalú, a Wuechua Indian mystic

Why Pianists Don't Give Up

A Chopin prelude may be only a minute long, but I might spend six months working on it, and it still gets away from me. Sometimes when this happens, I let it sit for a week, without practicing at all. And then one day I sit down at the piano and it's there. Without being forced, without straining, the piece just appears under my fingers—a perfect, fleeting gem. That happy moment of discovery is worth the months of searching.

“Whenever I play, I throw myself away. It doesn't matter where I am. I close my eyes and leave this earth.”

—Mary Lou Williams, jazz pianist

THINGS TO DO

Your Own Perfume

With essential oils, you can create your own perfume, based on your mood at the time. All you need is an eyedropper and a variety of oils. Kimberley D. Wheat, buyer for Bare Escentuals, offers her favorite secret recipe; she calls it “Little Black Dress”: 2 drops ylang ylang, 1 drop patchouli, and 1 drop bergamot added to 1 teaspoon jojoba oil. “Apply to pulse points!” Remember, essential oils are to be used only externally. Be sure not to ingest them; they can be toxic or even fatal. Be sure to keep them out of the reach of children, and test each one on a spot on your arm before you use them liberally in baths or as perfumes.

Dressing for Bed and Breakfast

I used to read magazine articles by mothers on how to save time. One of the tricks was to bathe the kids at night and then dress them for bed in shorts and a t-shirt so they'd be ready to go in the morning. Now when I go to bed, I often dress myself for the next day in a T-shirt and my long, cotton, wrinkle-proof skirt with the latticed waist and the material that stretches down to my ankles. When I do this, I think of those mothers. It's such a pleasure to get up in the morning and stay in my bed clothes, and it feels so good to walk to the store for milk without even bothering to get dressed.

“Life, within doors, has fewer pleasanter prospects than a neatly arranged and well-provisioned breakfast table.”

—Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hegel at Dawn

When I was doing my doctorate on Hegel, I once woke up at three in the morning, and went to an all-night restaurant. For reading material I decided to take along a volume of Hegel. Much to my surprise, it was all much clearer and more plausible than it had ever seemed in the daytime—perhaps because my mind in the hours before the dawn had not yet lapsed into its mundane ruts. Nowadays, one of my greatest pleasures is awakening very early in the morning and slowly savoring a few paragraphs from a choice philosophical treatise.

“Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.

There is no happiness like mine.

I have been eating poetry.”

—Mark Strand

Cleaning Eye Glasses

Towards the end of the day, when I'm getting tired but still have a lot of work, I wash my face and clean my glasses, and then I'm good for another few hours. It's just a little ritual, but it leaves me feeling fresh and renewed, and I have the comfort of knowing my glasses won't slide down my nose. I also take pleasure in taking other people's glasses and cleaning them too.

THINGS TO DO

Natural Hair Care

A simple, effective, old-fashioned rinse is simply vinegar, preferably cider vinegar. Mix 2 tablespoons in 2 cups of warm water. Work through hair after shampooing and rinsing, then rinse again with clear water. For light hair, use lemon juice instead of vinegar. This will help restore the natural acid balance of the scalp and get rid of all traces of soap and shampoo.

For an all-purpose hair conditioner, combine 3/4 cup olive oil, ½ cup honey, and the juice of 1 lemon. Rinse hair with water and towel dry. Work a small amount of conditioner into hair, comb through and cover with a shower cap or plastic wrap for ½ hour. Shampoo and rinse thoroughly. Store remaining conditioner in the refrigerator.

The Artist's Journal

I have a journal in my studio in which I paint and write and break every artistic rule. I don't say, “I must never do this,” I just put down whatever comes out of my head. Sometimes I think what I'm doing is brilliant, but it doesn't matter, since no one ever has to see it or judge it—I don't have to read what someone says about it in the paper. When I'm expressing myself in my journal, I feel drunk with color and material.

“The greatest part of our happiness and misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.”

—Martha Washington

THINGS TO DO

Newsprint Roll-Ends

If you feel the urge to express yourself in a big way, or if your paint-crazed child is constantly running out of paper, pay a visit to your local newspaper and ask if they have any roll-ends for sale. Newsprint comes in gigantic rolls that are often discarded when they're close to being used up. You can get them for a song (cheap) or, if you get lucky, for a smile (free).

The End of an Illness

There is nothing more wonderful than the first day after a long illness (in my case several years); when you walk down the street and feel well, the lightness is wonderful. So is the first moment of unsolicited well-being, not reactive but gratuitous. When you're recovering from a chronic or long-term sickness, you can summon the energy for reactive well-being long before you have any of those freefloating bursts of simple joie de vivre. They are the last thing to return as health returns.

“Is it so small a thing

to have enjoy'd the sun,

To have lived light in the spring,

To have loved, to have thought, to have done?”

—Matthew Arnold

THINGS TO DO

A Spring Tonic

Cultures throughout the world swear by garlic soup as a spring tonic and all-around cure for that under-the-weather feeling. No one knows if it is merely the pleasure in the taste that is the pick-me-up, or whether garlic has mysterious health properties. But give it a try when you're feeling blue and see if it works for you. Don't let the huge quantity of garlic scare you off—when cooked it turns very mellow.

Garlic Soup

4 heads of garlic

1 bunch parsley or thyme or marjoram, tied into a bundle with string

1 quart chicken broth, vegetable broth, or water

juice of 1 lemon or lime

salt and pepper to taste

lightly toasted bread or croutons (optional)

Break up the heads of garlic into cloves, and discard the papery membrane, but don't peel the cloves, and place in a 4-quart soup pot with the herbs. Add the broth or water, cover and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes, until garlic is very soft.

Strain the soup through the fine disk of a food mill or puree in a blender or food processor, and push through a medium-mesh strainer with the back of a ladle. Add the lemon or lime juice, salt and pepper, and bread if desired. Serves 4.

The Perfect Backhand

The ball comes over the net to my left side, and I get in perfect position behind it and smash a low backhand that arcs into the opposite corner right by the service line. It's just the antidote I need for all the other backhands that go out of control, and I say to myself, Hey, I can do that—it's easy. It's like the pleasure of throwing a perfect spiral when I toss a football, and I notice how little effort it takes. I wouldn't enjoy it half as much if I could do it all the time.

“A little of what you fancy does you good.”

—Marie Lloyd

THINGS TO DO

In Your Mind's Eye

Pollyanna and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale were right: Research shows that optimism and the power of positive thinking can affect everything from health to job success and life span. Several researchers have reported that pessimists who tend to blame themselves for their misfortunes are more susceptible to disease. The pessimist's typical attitude of helplessness may be associated with weakening of the immune system's resistance. Or pessimists may simply neglect their health.

A psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, Martin Seligman, suggested that our initial, automatic reactions to minor misfortune can be self-defeating. The technique of “cognitive therapy” involves identifying these automatic, negative thoughts and replacing them with ones that are more realistic.

And who knew better than Dr. Norman Vincent Peale? His wife Ruth, that's who. In the 1950s, Peale was dissatisfied with his manuscript for a book, then called The Power of Faith, and threw it in the trash. His wife retrieved it and took it to a New York publisher, where an editor changed the word “faith” to “positive thinking.” The result: ninety-eight weeks as America's best-selling nonfiction book, and an inspiration for generations.

So if you catch yourself saying things like “I know this won't turn out well,” “I'm sure he's going to disappoint me,” etc., try replacing them with thoughts like, “I'm going to do by best to make it come out well.” You'll be giving your body and soul a boost!

Animal Crackers

I'm a forty-year-old lawyer who goes looking for animal crackers whenever my day gets too stressful. They're the perfect size and shape for eating in one quick bite, they melt in my mouth, and they're sweet, but not too. But more than that, they take me back to my childhood, when life wasn't complicated, I didn't have difficult choices to make, and all I wanted was animal crackers and Mommy. I guess that's why animal crackers are so comforting to me now. When I was much younger, I used to talk to the animals, but now I just bite off their heads. My favorite is the gorilla, who looks like a very contented Buddha.

“Animal crackers and cocoa to drink, That is the finest of suppers, I think; When I'm grown up and can have what I please I think I shall always insist upon these.”

—Christopher Morley

THINGS TO DO

Melting Away Stress

If you're a very important attorney—or a very unimportant one—you can nibble on animal crackers at your desk all day, coaxing out those little bits from the box that looks like a miniature circus animal car. That woven string handle is so you can carry it outside your briefcase. And if you are a lawyer with a social conscience, look for Endangered Species animal crackers. Every time someone asks you for one, you can give them a little lecture about how the real animals need to be saved, not eaten.

If that doesn't appeal to you, you can recall another childhood pleasure with these easy-to-make brownies. They can furnish a week's worth of lunch bag treats, or disappear in a day or two with coffee or a big glass of milk. Thanks, Mom.

Nostalgic Brownies

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

¼ cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup all-purpose flour

pinch of salt

½ cup walnuts, broken into pieces or chopped

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan, and line it with baking parchment or waxed paper. Butter and flour the waxed paper.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat, stir well, then lightly stir in the sugar, egg, vanilla, flour, salt, and nuts.

Spread into the pan and bake for about 30 minutes, until center is set. Do not overbake, or brownies will lose their chewy texture and become dry.

Remove pan from the oven and cool on a rack about 5 minutes. Turn out onto the rack and peel off the paper. While still warm, cut into squares with a greased knife. Makes 16 brownies.

Whatever the seasoning, whatever the dish, whatever the occasion, do it generously and with love, for that in the end is what the shared experience of cooking and eating is all about.

—Elizabeth Rozin