Les Carabinieres

Day 26 – Butter chicken

Kat Sark — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:45:28 +0000

“Your friend is your needs answered.

He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.

And he is your board and your fireside.

For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace. [...]

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, and joy that is unacclaimed.

When you part form you friend, you grieve not;

for that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence…”

(Kahlil Gibran, On Friendship)

“Sigh no more, no more. Live unbruised, we are friends.” (Mumford and Sons)

Day 25 – Nina

Kat Sark — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:20:19 +0000

Nina came into my life at a time when I lost a dear friend, and she took my hand and offered kindness and understanding and support, and has not let go ever since. She gave me strength by constantly reminding me of my own strength, and inspiring me with hers. She saw the person in me I have yet to prove that I am, and she believed in me when I was crumbling under doubts and disappointments.

She carries all the world’s wisdom and experience on her shoulders, and she does it with such grace, beauty, and good humour.

She is a comforting presence, a kind and generous heart, and she proved to me, irrefutably, that love is possible.

Day 24 – Small world

Kat Sark — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:00:40 +0000

Last night my roommate Kam came home raving about a female singer who performed “Somebody I used to know” by Gotye at open mic at Ye Olde Orchard. I knew friends of mine were playing open mic, but they usually play at the Arts Café, so I didn’t think much of it. This morning I checked up on Liz and how her open mic experience went, and she told me that it was in fact her singing at the Orchard. I would have liked so much to see and hear Liz sing last night, especially that song, the multiple ironies of which are just too much. Keep singing dear Liz, your voice carries far and beyond all barriers!

Day 23 – Patience

Kat Sark — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:47:12 +0000

They say patience is a virtue. What do they really mean by that? I looked it up:

“Patience is being calm and tolerant when difficult things happen. It means showing acceptance when you or others make mistakes. Patience is doing something now so that later it will bear fruit, like planting a seed and waiting for it to grow. Patience is a commitment to the future. Without patience people want everything NOW. They complain when unpleasant things cannot be helped. They act mad when things don’t go their way. When people practice patience, they can wait without complaining. They forgive others and themselves for mistakes. They make the world a kinder, gentler place. Practicing patience is accepting things you cannot control. Patience is waiting without complaining.” (Linda Kavelin Popov, The Virtues Project)

Day 22 – Banana-walnut muffins

Kat Sark — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:15:25 +0000

“We tend to think that in order to be happy, we need certain outside conditions; we must have this or that before happiness can arrive. But happiness comes from our way of looking at things. We’re not happy, but other people under the same conditions are happy. Our happiness depends on our insight.” (Thich Nhat Hanh)

Day 21 – First game

Kat Sark — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:31:34 +0000

Our first soccer game tonight had a great turn-out – 16 people came to play – guys and girls – and we had a great time!

We’re playing every Saturday for the next 10 weeks. If you’re in Montreal, come play with us!

Day 20 – The Table

Kat Sark — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:00:31 +0000

When we were 20 and 21 years old, my best friend Charlie and I came up with “the Table” metaphor. It was a post-teen vision of what our lives should be like, and we used the metaphor of a dining table, where you collect your closest friends, the kinds that will be there for you all your life, through all the good and the bad. Watching pretty much all the relationships around us fall apart, the older generations going through divorce, and no one around us equipped to provide any solutions or answers, we had decided that the only sane and sustainable kinds of relationships would be a select family of friends, the kind that will be there for you after all the break-ups and divorces and everything in-between. This carried with it a very adamant friendship code, made up of our core values, which placed loyalty, generosity, dedication, love, above all personal advantages or interests. Back then, we pretty much only had each other at our metaphorical tables and maybe our siblings. Today, 10 years later, I can proudly say that we both realized that vision. The people at our tables defy the unpredictable fluidity of modernity. They come through, every time, providing generosity, kindness, and understanding in response to life’s injustices. We also realized that now, in our 30s, our priorities and visions for our lives changed. We both want families now, as well as our table of friends. These are milestone moments that all women go through, with or without using metaphors. I am grateful to be in the company of superwomen, who are working hard everyday to build sustainable relationships, lives, careers, and sustainable happiness, despite all the hardship, hurt, inequality, injustices and struggle. Thank you my darlings! It’s an honour to sit across from you all! This photo is for all of you!

Day 19 – La Petite Cuillère

Kat Sark — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:26:34 +0000

My new favourite café in Montreal is La Petite Cuillère. Thank you, Aaron, for taking me there! After looking up their website, I realized that a friend of mine took the photograph they use for their website: adbeus coffee. This is what I love bout Montreal. Great places, great people, great food, great music, and your friends go there too.

Day 18 – On gratitude

Kat Sark — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:48:28 +0000

My amazingly inspiring friend Renee shared a poem she liked by a new poet she discovered recently, and what moved me even more than the poem itself was her description of it: “So here is one of my favourites. It won’t really work in electronic format, but, oh! on the page, this single poem with its beautiful typesetting hits me right where I live. Not only do I find it generous and true in its imagery, but it is able to awaken gratitude in me when it seems far away. And that, I find, is one of the ways to feel happiness also. To be full of pure gratitude is, if not joy itself, then something awfully like it.” Here it is:

As If to Demonstrate an Eclipse (Billy Collins, from Nine Horses)

I pick an orange from a wicker basket

and place it on the table

to represent the sun.

Then down at the other end

a blue and white marble

becomes the earth

and nearby I lay the little moon of an aspirin.

I get a glass from a cabinet,

open a bottle of wine,

then I sit in a ladder-back chair,

a benevolent god presiding

over a miniature creation myth,

and I begin to sing

a homemade canticle of thanks

for this perfect little arrangement,

for not making the earth too hot or cold

not making it spin too fast or slow

so that the grove of orange trees

and the owl become possible,

not to mention the rolling wave,

the play of clouds, geese in flight,

and the Z of lightning on a dark lake.

Then I fill my glass again

and give thanks for the trout,

the oak, and the yellow feather,

singing the room full of shadows,

as sun and earth and moon

circle one another in their impeccable orbits

and I get more and more cockeyed with gratitude.

Day 17 – Letting others know you care

Kat Sark — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:05:50 +0000

“Generosity is the most natural outward expression of an inner attitude of compassion and loving-kindness. When one desires to alleviate the suffering of others and to promote their well-being, then generosity – in action, word, and thought – is this desire put into practice. It is important to recognize the “generosity” here refers not just to giving in a material sense, but to generosity of the heart.” (Dalai Lama)