Noury's Creative World…

Mama Nature never ceases to amaze me…even when the perfect flower is not so perfect.

Therein lies the beauty of Nature.  It never works at doing anything…it just waits patiently for things to evolve and take their course…all without moving a petal.

This morning during my once-in-a-while walk, I was looking for the perfect magnolia, but took a few pictures, because perfection was nowhere to be found.  I became a bit annoyed because I wanted to put a breathtaking picture on today’s posting.  Then after snapping a few photos, my ever restless little mind interpreted the beauty of nature.

It just is…it doesn’t mind if you appreciate it or not…it goes about just being itself.

Breathtaking…

So…it was today…a day to appreciate things as they are.  Not as I would like them to be.

Your Happy Contessa

“Refuse to let an old mindset move into your consciousness.”  Moi

Sometimes we think we have to take the actual road to travel to amazing places.

I am on a quest to take the road less travelled…that one of an internal search to find meaning and fulfillment at this stage of my life.

I think I was not created to color my hair once a month, check the lines and wrinkles grow deeper and find out which cream will do the miracle.  A waste of time and dinero.   I have decided that I worked very hard for these lines and wrinkles and they are my badge of honor.  Have to be positive about a losing battle.

I believe I have found maybe the way to find meaning and fulfillment in whatever stage I am now.  I am not letting you in right at this moment about the way to accomplish such a monumental task, because I have to find out if this actually happens.

Travelling to different parts of the globe, shopping for nice clothing, items for your household is fun and somewhat of a therapy.  But it is like running away from the real and genuine quest for contentment and fulfillment.  If that’s what you are searching for at this moment in your journey.  I am.  I want to be able to be happy, content and at peace when I am doing absolutely nothing.  Not even thinking or moving.

Stuff is just that, stuff.  So I am looking for something intangible that will make me look beyond the stuff and lots of noise because I think I need to be busy and always doing something.  That’s what my life is all about now, being busy doing things to fill my daily hours.  I am ready for the next step in my life.

I am looking forward with much enthusiasm and anticipation to see what new meaning I can bring into my life.  This is so exciting.

So…it was today, 15 April, 2012…taxman day…postponed until next Tuesday.  The check is in the mail 😦

Your Happy Contessa

“Some chocolate always make the day sweeter.”  Your contessa.

Ahhhhh…new beginnings…fresh starts…new opportunities…maybe a new life.

Those are the meanings of Easter for me.  This also includes the spirit of forgiveness.  You cannot love without having the spirit of forgiveness.  One cannot exist without the other.

Also, I am grateful for new opportunities to be a better person, to be kind, be loving, and thoughtful of others.

Jesus set the example…perfect love for all of us, very imperfect beings.  It is not that easy to follow his footsteps sometimes.

I read in a book the following;  God said, if you want to follow me, I will help you; and if you want to try it on your own, I will wait until you call me.

What a compassionate, kind, understanding perfect loving God we have.

So…it was today…7th April, 2012…another day to be grateful for our Almighty loving God.

Happy Easter!!

Your Happy Contessa

“I am not young enough to know everything.”  J.M. Barrie, Scottish author and dramatist, a/k/a the creator of Peter Pan.  9 May, 1860 – 19 June, 1937.

This is the fish that I nurture every day in the inside pool of my apartment.  She is a very smart fish…but of course, she is a she.  She knows when to talk, when to eat and when to sleep. She even knows when to just be quiet.  Great listener too.

I  feed her only vegetarian meals, because I want her to be healthy just like me.  Or so I think.

Emelinda is a great singer too.  Loves to sing me the old good songs from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s.  Now you know how old Emelinda is.

Am I losing my marbles?  No…this was my lame attempt to go with the flow of the foolishest day of the year.  For some people everyday is that day.  I wanted to do something out of the ordinary, because April 1st, 2013 is iffy.  Mayans were very smart people and very exact.

HAPPY APRIL FOOL’S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The things one must do to entertain my audience.  And those muses are still missing or somewhere in the Keys drinking some margaritas on the land of forever Jimmy Buffett singing “wasted away in Margaritaville…”  That’s a great song come to think of it.

So…it was today, 1st April, 2012…a day to be somewhat foolish about writing something about nothing.  I am also appreciative to the readers of 19 countries that honored me last month by reading the way I interpret things.  Thank you, merci y muchas gracias!!!!

Your Happy Contessa

Note:  This fish resides in a pond in the gardens of my living complex.  I was fortunate enough that she was posing for my camera last week being very still and quiet.  Today it became very handy for my made up story. Hope you enjoyed my first very short fiction tryout.

Coming back from my French class this evening, there was a beautiful breeze, a sliver of the moon and some twinkle, twinkle little stars that made me feel as if I was a citizen of paradise.

The peace and quiet of the night, together with my brain feeling just fried by my efforts to speak the romantic French language and sounding as if I don’t even understand myself, set the mood in perfect coordination, that when I came out of my car and looked up, the smallness of the moon, the palm trees moving with the rhythm of the breeze, forced me to stop to admire this wonder of nature all for myself.  No witnesses, just me and a joy in my heart for being able to be part of this magical moment.

Here is the attempt I made to capture this moment in time with my ccc (cheap, chic camera).

In my imaginative mind, I pretended that I was in some small island of the Caribbean or the Atlantic Ocean, and the waves of the crystal clear waters were rushing to the shore to make that unique sound that soothes the soul.

So…it was today…an evening to feel at ease with the Universe.

Your Happy Contessa

“To look up is joy.”  Confucius, Chinese teacher, philosopher, politician.  551-479 BC.

No one likes to talk about the perverse sides of human beings.  All of us have weaknesses, but some of us have ugly sides called bigotry, racism and prejudice.

People that want to pretend that we live in a kind of utopian society are on denial or just plain blind and deaf, metaphorically speaking.

Here in Sanford, Florida, there was a murder that occurred recently and I am sure that if this boy, Treyvon Martin wouldn’t have been an African-American, he would still be alive today.

How do I know that?  Because I have lived through racism, bigotry, and prejudice.    Sometimes the feeling is so strong you can almost touch it.  I don’t have to even open my mouth, and an assumption that I am stupid or below average intelligence is immediately made.  Because…I am of Hispanic origin.

Treyvon Martin did not have a chance with this mentally sick person that deprived him of enjoying one of our rights as a human being.  Life.

I cannot imagine how his mother is feeling at this moment.  That must be an unbearable pain that will be with her for as long as she lives.

I am going to close this thought with the following:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident:  That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Not anymore for Treyvon Martin.

So…it was today…a day to remember a young life that was not given an opportunity to accomplish what the future was holding for him, because someone denied him of this right because the color of his skin.

How sad.

May the Lord have mercy on us all.  Yesterday was Treyvon, and that makes me ponder on who the self-or government-appointed vigilantes are going to come after next.

Last night I had a dream…this very dear person, that has gone to Heaven, and I were having a conversation and all I remember about the dream is what this person said, that even in the dream I said “wow! that is so profound.”

This is what this person said “If you have not been taught, given or shown love, you cannot give love or even show love.”  The definition of love is so broad, that this has many applications.

This morning I have been thinking about this sentence and some pieces have fallen in place.  Some of our parents, friends, brothers, sisters, and so on… have not been generous in their showing of love or affection to some of us.  Now I realize that is because probably they were not shown or given love.  Sometimes some of us can face this syndrome, hold on to it forever, and become a prisoner on this circle of pity.  Sometimes that is the excuse we always use to get away with inexcusable behavior.  It is all about “me and my sad story.”

I have made peace with my own issue, because I remember very well that my grandparents were very dry in their showing of affection, so now the pieces fall into place.  They were not shown or given love…so there goes the cycle.

The reason why I am writing about this subject matter is because…nothing happens by accident in the universe.  Someone, somewhere, needed to make peace with this issue, and I am only a vessel.

So…it was today, March 19, 2012…a day to break that cycle and put some issues to rest.

Your Happy Contessa

“To be able to say how much you love is to love but little.”  Francesco Petrarca, Italian poet, scholar and humanist.  20 July, 1304 – 19 July, 1374.

And you thought that only little boys liked trains.  Well…I better like them a lot, because I have six of them going almost next to my building on a daily basis.

This morning during my forced-to-walk there it was… one of them.  This time a cargo or freight train.  I cannot help it, but I get so excited that I run just to see them go by.  There’s something about a train.  Only thing that I am not so crazy about is when at 2:30 a.m., there goes one of them and the conductor probably wants to get even with the people who are sleeping, that he/she blows that whistle so hard and often, that one of these days I am going to come out and invite them to come right in and run the train through my apartment.  It might as well.  It is so funny, that I am laughing by myself at that time of the morning and  saying, “time to bless all the people who I know, let’s see who do I start with…” until all the noise and commotion leave the area.

So…it was today…March 15, 2012…a day to remember that yes, I do like trains…

Your Happy Contessa

“Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get.”  Anonymous

What do you do with old apples, totally ignored for over four months, because I am on a kick for cantaloupes right now; and a box of old dried raisins.

Well…if you are like me, I do not like to waste anything, and like to repurpose almost everything…do not like to throw things out…you become creative on a rainy day such as today.

You peel them, slice them, put them on a pan with nothing in it, add the raisins, some cinnamon, some sugar, a pinch of salt, one teaspoon of vanilla extract, little, little salt, and if you have crystallized ginger, just a bit.  Put all the concoction to simmer very low, because it has to create a steam, no fat whatsoever.  I do not have margarine, butter or even other regular oil.  Only extra virgin olive oil, and I did not think that was proper.  I put olive oil on everything I cook, except sweets.

After steering for a few times, whenever you see the apples are al-dente, just remove them from the pan and into a dish.  Sooo delicious.  I am planning to have some with my dinner.  That will be salmon, tabouleh and steamed apples.  So good for me also.

So…it was today…11th March, a day to have old apples repurposed.

Your Happy Contessa

“Can we ever have too much of a good thing?” Miguel De Cervantes, Spanish novelist, poet and playwright.  1547 – 23 April, 1616.

This is my bounty from a trip with my 90-year-old girlfriend to our Community Garden.  First, I couldn’t open the lock, even though the combination was in place.  Then a city employee was passing by and I asked him if the combination had been changed, so he called the city and the combination was correct.  Then…he did something magical…he pushed the top of the lock and voila…”open sesame”…we went into the garden.  The way I was doing it, probably I would have been 80+ still trying to open the gates.

There were lettuces, collard greens, peppers, flowers, cabbage, and lots of other eatables.  My girlfriend’s plot was kind of skimpy, but looked good.  I have my tomatoes, pepper and mint leaves for my tabouleh.  Can’t wait to prepare it.

Beautiful red leave lettuce.  Eating fresh in our neighborhood.  Sounds like a commercial, but love fresh.  I am signing in for next season!

So…it was today…8th March…a day of fresh surprises.

Your Happy Contessa

“Buy fresh, eat fresh,  be healthy and happy.”  Your Contessa.