littlewonderlog

It’s been 5 days since I made a big fuss about my butt touching the floor for the first time in my life even for a millisecond during a front split. Today (brace yourselves people, it’s a big one), I finally managed to sit on the floor during a front split with my left leg straight forward. As expected, it was a brief moment, yet I sat down. S. A. T. My hands were on the floor but with no weight imposed on them. They were just there minding their own business. Already heated up with some squats and running, my forehead and neck were sweating profusely. Oh, wow, it’s so liberating.

The doubt – “Will I ever be able to do the splits?” – is slowly fading away. I mean, I should be, with this progress. Even with the right leg facing forward, and the side split as well. They have to work. There’s no other option.

I’m enjoying this fulfilling day, even better than yesterday, with less doubt and more conviction.

I mean, what’s the big fuss? (Sorry, can’t help it. It’s a chronic disease.)

Baking is fun, even on a wheat-free diet.

It’s fun to see the roughly mixed dough becoming smooth and glowing with time. It’s fun to smell the fermented flour and basil while stretching the dough. It’s fun to see the dough more than doubling after a good sleep in the fridge. It’s fun to see the dough making air bubbles while being folded and moved to a pan. It’s fun to see the dough rising after 10 minutes in the oven. It’s fun to feel the soft and puffy texture of the bread while smelling its golden aroma.

Baking is fun, even on a wheat-free diet.

Everything is hard the first time. Always.

Not knowing how to do it makes it hard, and even if you know how to do it, not being used to it makes it hard. Is there anything easy the first time? If you don’t know how to do it, you should learn it. If you can’t do it, you should do it more.

And since you’re already doing it, you might as well do it while enjoying it, feeling fulfilled, and cherishing every moment.

Although I’ve cut out wheat for the past 12 months, I still bake bread.

It’s for 1 or 2 slices for my husband’s lunch. If he eats it all up too fast, it’s too much of a hassle for me as it usually takes longer than 20 hours for a single pan. If he eats it all up too slowly, I have to wait too long to bake even when I want to. I bother him when he eats the bread too fast, and I bother him when he eats it too slowly.

The golden mean is important. It’s especially important even when it comes to domestic bread enforcement.

In mid-May, now midday walks have become a dangerous move.

The sun is scorching, my skin is burning, and the air is roasting. At this point in time, the best time to take an afternoon walk for me is 7:30 p.m. It’s bright enough to walk around, yet there’s no skin0burning sunlight.

Now, midday walks have become a dangerous move.

I’ve been trying this for years. I don’t remember when, but it’s always been a passion (one out of my 345 million passions). I’ve always envied people who can do it, but my body couldn’t handle it. Straight to the front, straight to the side, legs splitting smoothly like melted cheese. It’s always been fascinating to see splits while watching videos of ballet, gymnastics, or Taekwondo. My flexibility hasn’t been that bad, but I’ve never been able to do a split.

Then today, while trying a front split with my left leg forward, my butt touched the floor. Wait, it touched? Oh, it really touched. It was only for about 0.732756 seconds, but the touch was real. Oh my my. It was something I experienced for the first time in my life. That feeling when my butt touched the floor, the moment of wonder and accomplishment.

It’s fascinating to feel something for the first time. “The first moment of my butt touching the floor while trying a split” will never come again in my life. I will experience it again, but never ‘for the first time’ ever again. For this reason, a first experience is always wondrous, since it’s the only time it’s the first.

(I don’t even know how much of a fuss I will make when I manage a proper split, when I’m going this crazy over my butt touching the floor for less than a second. But I am in too much euphoria here to care.)

I like the scratching sound of a pencil on paper.

Sharpening my yellow 2B pencils, scribbling and drawing, and pouring out floating thoughts on the paper clear my mind.

So I sharpen my pencils again today, for my sharp and smooth brain.

If you expect to get good at something while you don’t spend even an hour a day on it, you will only get a lot of disappointment.

Since I am almost just dangling my feet in learning Japanese and practicing piano for a few minutes every day, my progress is at a snail’s pace yet there’s some progress (very tiny and easy to miss).

If you want to get good at something, you should spend a lot of time on it, but if you don’t really have time for it, you can choose to do just a little and still enjoy doing it.

Eventually, you get what you put in, and the more you put in, the faster you get.

Sometimes, just immersing oneself in what’s really intriguing can be the answer.

Chef Kwon Sung Jun, a.k.a. Napoli Matfia from the Culinary Class Wars improved his English dramatically while watching Gordon Ramsay’s YouTube videos. With a strong desire to learn cooking techniques, he watched those videos over and over again even though there were no subtitles available back then, and one day he could just understand most of them.

It might have been more difficult if he had been watching those videos only to improve his English. Sometimes, just immersing oneself in what’s really intriguing can be the answer.

I recently realized what’s important in the process of building a habit.

It’s doing it regardless of my mood.

Whether I am in the mood for it or not, it’s important to do it no matter what.

Even when I’m not in the mood, it’s important to work out anyway. Even when I’m not in the mood, it’s important to practice English anyway.

Plus, the joy of being the master of your mood, rather than being dragged around by it, is another bonus.