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Making Waves

 There is a quote that I once read which I come back to time and again when I am in need of a reminder about my own abilities and worth. It reads:

“Your thoughts and words are like stones dropped into still waters, causing ripples to grow and expand outward. The power you have to make impact on the world is far greater than you could ever imagine.”

Further exploration and interpreting of these beautifully strung together words leads to the discovery that each and every one of us is an incredibly powerful being with great potential to spark change and manifest good. We all come with our own unique strengths and sets of gifts, and when we believe in ourselves we can use those strengths and gifts to make ripples, even waves, for the greater good. You alone have the ability to do wonders.

            Allow me to craft a simple example to help illustrate the potential power you hold to create good and have it ripple outwards towards growth:

            Imagine you are at a coffee shop. You walk up to the cashier to order your coffee. The barista manning the cash register has had a tough morning; they are anxious, tired, and weary of the abrasiveness of customers rushing through the morning hours. Upon your turn at the register, you pause, you greet the barista a good morning, you ask them how they are doing, you smile at them, maybe you even joke with them; you provide a much needed friendly interaction filled with warmth and kindness. Now feeling acknowledged, seen, and treated with due respect, the mood of the barista is elevated. In turn, they are  better able to serve more customers throughout the day with that same kindness and warmth, and all of those customers may now go forth and perhaps spread even more kindness and warmth. By simply being friendly, respectful, and treating everyone as your equal, you have quite possibly elevated the energy of dozens throughout the day.

            The above scenario starts on a small scale and becomes larger as the momentum catches on – the stone is dropped, the ripples spread, and the waves formulate. This can happen on even grander scales as well. Consider the following scenario:

            You are on the phone with your friend. In this conversation, you tell your friend something they deeply needed to hear – a poignant piece of truth, a broader perspective, or any other message that ends up resonating with them. This friend also happens to be a teacher. Your friend-teacher goes to their class and in their lecture relates that very something you told them to their students. This message deeply resonates with several students. Those students then go forth and apply that message to various aspects of their lives and in turn that message and the actions it invokes impacts more circles of people. Perhaps, maybe one of those students holds onto that message for years to come and eventually inspires them to do something great that ultimately benefits many people.

            Something similar to this could indeed happen, and it could happen because you dropped that something – that stone of truth, wisdom, righteousness – into a calm ocean surface and made giant waves with it. So you see, your words and actions have huge, enormous potential for growth and greatness.

            Furthermore, your simple thoughts have large potential too! Thoughts are not merely thoughts, they are vibrations of energy. In some schools of thought, it is believed that through the power of focused thought, we can connect and create. Have you ever had a friend call you and express that they had been thinking about you shortly after you had been thinking about them? Somehow, your energy of your thoughts were connecting with that friend and prompted action that brought you further connection with one another. Have you ever been going through a difficult time and had friends and family tell you they were keeping you in their thoughts and prayers and you actually felt their intended thoughts and wishes? Or vice versa, have you ever intentionally sent someone thoughts and prayers when they were going through a difficult time only to later hear that they felt supported by you within that time? Here again, our thoughts are intentionally being sent out, being received, being processed, and sparking connection.

            This is not to say that simply thinking positive, happy thoughts is enough to promote change and harmony within our world. Using our voices and taking actions are of the utmost important within our societies and within our own circles of family and friends. Your thoughts, however, are powerful tools we also have access to for changing and creating.

            Often, it is far too easy to doubt ourselves, to think ourselves too small, to believe that we are unable to make real and true impact in our time here on earth. The truth is, however, that we are each powerful beings with every ability to touch this world in small and big ways. All you have to do now is to believe. So moving forward, believe in your worth, believe in your strength, believe in your power. Think, speak, and act. Go on and make waves.

An Open Letter to Food Bloggers with Perfect Food Photography

Hi there fellow food blogger!

My name is Johnny La Pasta, perhaps you’ve heard of my blog? Perhaps not, building up a popular blog is no easy feat. (Say, when do the advertisers start giving me money to put banners on my site? Still waiting).

Me too Brit, me too.

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Anyway, I love your food blog. Your recipe for that slow cooker salmon is giving me life. I can’t wait to try!

Also, I just have to tell you, your food photos are soooo beautiful! Or perhaps a better compliment would be pinable”, that’s a much better word of affirmation in the digital age anyhow.

I mean, that pizza looks like Michelangelo made it….

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Perhaps another way of saying your photos look great is to tell that they look photoshopped. Wait what? They are? No wonder!

Like, those potatoes have to be airbrushed…

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You see, I have to admit to you, I am jealous AF that your food looks like it was styled carefully by Martha Stewart herself while mine looks like it was styled by, well, me.

Martha approveth of you, disdaineth of me.

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You’re during an A+++ job with your food photography, and your blog gets higher views because of it. Bravo!

Do you pay the hand models? Or are your hands also as perfect as your food?

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However, wouldn’t you agree that perfectly photographed food is not always how REAL FOOD turns out looking?

Here is my real food. I mean, sure my dented fridge is in the background, but the pizza looks okay….

BBQ Chicken Pizza 17

Is it not true that food can come out looking messy and sloppy and not photographed in the right light or setting, but still be completely delicious and nutritious? I know it to be true, because that is the nature of real food.

My pasta is a little messy, but you can’t not know it’s delish, right?

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Sometimes, you just don’t have time to make it look pretty and magical, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good.

Nice camera! Can you pay off my student loans, please?

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You see, you have that $3000 camera, and an advanced version of photoshop on your macbook pro, and you have all the gadgets for creating the illusion of perfect, soft, natural light, and you have a gloriously large and upscale kitchen to stage everything in, and you have different types of plates and tablescapes to stage against, and you sometimes even have an assistant pouring sauce into the picture to get that rad action shot. All of it maketh these gorgeous foodie photos.

But that’s kind of unattainable for the rest of us peasant level food bloggers.  Some of us have tiny, non-granite counter kitchens with very limited space and one set of plates. So, sorry if you see my overused toaster in the background of my dinner shot; I gots nowhere else to put it! And sorry if my photo turns out too bright or dim; I only have hideodeous flourscent lighting in my kitchen and dim orange lighting in my dining room and natural light in my abode is evasive, especially at prime cooking times.

Dream….

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Reality….

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Also, if my photos look like they were shot quickly and then rushed on from so that the photographed food could be eaten, that’s because they were. I know that this food blogging gig is your full time job, so you can dedicate hours to shooting the perfect food photo to pin and insta, you might even make food just for a photoshoot and not even an actual meal; but I am over here trying to food blog my real life actual dinner at my literal dinner time because I work 55 hours a week between 2 jobs. Taking time to create the perfect shot is a non-option for me most regrettably.

Like, this is my actual dinner, I have to take this photo and eat now or die.

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I wish I could document the process of putting every ingredient in my slow cooker in the morning light and then capture the final plating at sunset with stunning, “LIKE” inducing snaps, but I am already running late for work by the time I am dumping all the ingredients in my slow cooker at one time so….not happening.

How did you even get up there? Are these your real friends? Can I have one of the succulents?

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I love that you can accomplish this seemingly impossible feat and make art of your food through photos, but please judge me not for when mine comes out a bit more gritty and less photoshopped looking, because my food is still good. You’re foodie photos might be the equivalent of a highly edited Vogue cover, while mine are the quick, realistic pics of the paparazzi, but I can’t help that right now.

The thing is, real food isn’t always pretty. And a recipe post that has less than airbrushed looking photos doesn’t mean that following said recipe won’t produce real food. Real food can be pretty and it can be okay looking, but it all tastes the same.

Maybe this isn’t to your photography standards, but it still tastes good AF.

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So if anyone is sad their food doesn’t plate just like the world’s most successful blogger, do not let your heart be troubled! If you followed the directions, your food still tastes good, you are just seeing the realist incarnation of it. And if you read a blog like mine where the photos are just okay, please know it is still good, but here again, it is just real food that was just plated and is about to be demolished by me so that I can continue pushing through my hellish 55 hour work week.

So keep doing what you are doing, keep making food look good, but don’t look down on us that don’t have the right tools, settings, and resources to do so. And the rest of you, be proud of anything you manage to plate at the end of a busy day no matter if it’s traditionally pinable or not!

Cheers and Namaste!

Johnny La Pasta

Johnny’s Weekend Roundup!

Ciao friends! I am starting a new series on this blog called “Johnny’s Weekend Roundup!” which I will be publishing every other week or so. The intention behind my roundup is share links to other online material for your weekend browsing that I found interesting, informational, and otherwise inspiring that hopefully you will as well since we are all like-minded people here!

So here it goes – Johnny’s Weekend Roundup for the weekend of August 12, 2016!

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