Desire for happiness

One of the things about living in a city like Paris is that you spend a

lot of time – well, dealing with life. Bills to pay Speed Dating, paperwork to do,

typos to avoid, stolen bikes to replace, smokers to dodge Flower shopon sidewalks

waving lit cigarettes (I got nailed the other day – ouch!), or buying a

pair of shoes, can easily take up much – or all – of your days. It’s

too-easy to get wrapped up in all that minutiae and let all the things

you love to do get overwhelmed by the other things that tend to take

over, if you let them low interest personal loan.

I’ve let them and decided to do a little turn-around by cube organizersrevisiting the

places and eating the things that I love in Paris. It’s easy to forget

the pockets of wonderfulness that people see when they come here for a

week – the parks, the boulevards SKI TRIP, the chocolate shops, and just taking a

stroll and getting some air (in between all the sidewalk maneuvering) and

take in the city.


Macarons aren’t new. Macarons gerbet, or filled macarons are distinctly

Parisian and have been around for about 150 years. True, they are

available elsewhere nowadays. But like a New York or Montreal bagel, or

Chicago deep-dish pizza, certain foods get designated with an appellation

because they are so closely associated with where they were first made.

(Bagels and pizza are from neither of those places mentioned, originally.

And macarons, which were originally from Italy craniosacral massage, then came to France and

are usually available as simple, crispy cookies made with egg whites,

sugar and almonds.) But that’s getting back into minutiae, a word I had

to look up the precise spelling for, twice (more minutiae!) and I’m more

interested in tasting pastries. So I took a stroll over to the relatively

new Pierre Hermé macaron boutique in the Marais.

Macarons kind of had their day in the soleil. Everyone wanted to either

make them, or come to Paris and sample them. For a while, almost every

day a question or two would land in my Inbox from people who were making

macarons, wondering why their macarons didn’t have the ruffled “feet”,

or why their tops cracked – and could I diagnose them? Interviewers were

astonished when they’d ask me what flavors of macarons Parisians made at

home, and I responded that I couldn’t think of anyone that made macarons

in Paris because no one had the space for a baking sheet on their kitchen

counter. And honestly, it’s easier for people to get them at their local

pastry shop or bakery.

四季的交換，春夏秋冬的短暫，那一刻的永恆，那精彩的瞬間，都已定格。自然的融洽，和諧的伸展，都是永不褪色的畫面。啊！人生也如這大自然裡的四季，步入了四十歲的門檻，便是步入了人生的秋天，是啊，“一葉落而??知天下秋”，四十歲的人生恰是自然界的hong kong company register金秋，涼爽宜人，深沉寧靜，意蘊悠遠。

仰望湛藍、澄澈的夜空，你明白了什麼是遼闊高遠；眺望一望無際的秋野，你明白了什麼是深沉靜美，啊！這就是人生秋天的況味。

看著時光的飛逝，我已度過了四十個春夏秋冬，我四十歲了，心中不由生起一絲酸楚，面對自己的年齡，隨之而帶來的是恐懼、悲觀與失望。我已走過了人生的大半旅程，四十年的風雨滄桑見證，四十年的風雨歷程。在這四十年裡，我都做過什麼？我承認，我並非成功，沒有事業，沒有成績，更沒有輝煌，唯一能帶給我的只是踏實與滿足。

我不奢求太多，只是一個安於現狀的人，也不會去想像，想像雖然美好，一旦真實的演繹相差甚遠，只求順其自然，任其發展，才能一路陽光。

我從不考慮年齡，年齡不是問題，但是並非無視它的Domestic Helper存在，它在一飛一秒鐘前行，它在花開花落中陪伴，它在時光飛逝中飄逸。

四十歲，當腦子裡出現這個概念的時候，我在反思自己，以前走過的路筆直嗎？做過的事坦然嗎？經歷過的無悔嗎？付出過的後悔嗎？不，我無悔，坦坦蕩盪，問心無愧，只是追隨於心的安寧，心的平靜，心的召喚。

在今後的歲月裡，我該如何踏上我的行程，去走好我的那一步步。每踏出一步，都是一個踏實的腳印。每走完一步，都會留下深深地烙印。

四十歲，它已走過了兒時的懵懂；四十歲，它已走過瞭如花的季節；四十歲，它已經歷了世間的洗禮；四十歲，它還要迎接新的挑戰。

四十歲的人生，已深切的理解“言寡尤，行寡悔”的人生信條，多聽、多看、多思、多想，謹言慎行，平和、鎮定的走在人生路上。

四十歲的人生，正是秋天的枝頭，那枚等待紅透的cheap bookcase果實，你只需要安然、耐心的靜候，它一天天變得成熟，果香襲人，沁人肺腑……