Easter



Spring is finally on the horizon. It just so happens to be one of my favourite seasons (I'm still yet to make up my mind on which season takes the title of favourite) and I find it becomes so much easier to be happy and positive around this time of year. Everything just seems to suddenly become so much more invigorated and alive after a long, desolate winter period. Trees start to bud, flowers start to bloom, birds begin to build nests and the first hints of warmish sunny weather for a long ol' time start to creep beyond the clouds. Despite this, it does seem to be that awkward period of the year where one moment it's warm enough for tshirt weather and the next you're stuck in the middle of nowhere mid way through a tropical thunder storm with no coat. Thank god those longer, lighter evenings signal the ever closer arrival of summer.

Easter is probably most people's favourite bank holiday of the year, consisting of a long weekend away from work and school, a perfect excuse to indulge in far too much chocolate, and this weekend usually has more sun than the entirety of summer for some bizarre reason (thanks British weather).
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Why, when I was younger, I believed in a giant, magical white bunny who creeps into your house at night to hide chocolate eggs inside every cupboard and behind every piece of furniture I will never know. It seems kinda odd to think about it as an adult, but I guess that's one of those things that you miss about being a kid, having such a vivid imagination of what the world is like, without the restrictions of logic or the laws of physics! I have really fond memories of Easter egg hunts around the garden with my family, desperately trying to figure out the hand-written note with riddles and clues as to where chocolately loot was hidden, running around frantically with a little wicker basket in my hand collecting everything remotely resembling chocolate. I'm not going to lie, I was quite the Easter egg discoverer (and never so good at modesty) so obviously finding the most eggs will forever feel like some kind of momentous triumph (of course I always shared them out with my siblings..ahem).. but mum always seemed to have a good relationship with the Easter bunny, so he tended to come twice within one day, leading to two epic hunts and leaving me and my siblings with enough sugar to sink several battleships.

I don't usually tend to eat a whole lot of chocolate, but when I do I'm definitely a dark chocolate kinda guy. This year we opted to create some Easter themed nest cakes, mostly an ideal recipe because they don't involve any baking, something that isn't really the strongest trait within my skill set, accompanied my annual intake of creme egg brownies. Brownies seem to be one of the hardest thing to get right in terms of baking, so anything that turns out even remotely aesthetically pleasing or edible looking is a triumph for me. I salute anyone who can make the perfect recipe every time, but one of my favourite things about baking is the imperfect nature of it, getting my hands dirty, the home-made look and that 'I made this myself' satisfaction when you finally finish the process, despite the quality of the final result! Some of my fondest memories are of baking with my nan when I was younger (or as I like to call her, the biscuit magician), getting more cake mixture on myself and up the walls than in the actual cake itself and ending up with a gloopy mess which probably tasted awful, but I was proud of it.


Happy Easter!

I go to seek a great perhaps



I have always wondered what it would be like to have an epiphany, a sudden intuitive perception or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by a simple occurrence or experience, that was until today when I seemed to have what I can only describe as a sudden realisation about how short life actually is. Morbid I know, but bear with me. Sometimes we can all be found guilty of getting so caught up in wishing away time until the next weekend, next pay day or even just the end of Monday, that we forget that time is our most valuable commodity. Time can be the most precious and sought after resource of our lives, but also has the power to limit that same existence. A lot of people seem to wander through life, doing just enough to survive as one day effortlessly merges into the next, but putting in little effort to actually make the most out of it. I don't want to be one of those people who realise how much they took time for granted only after it's too late to do anything about it. I don't want to grow up to an old age just to look back and regret all of the missed opportunities that I didn't take and experiences that I put off doing for fear of change and leaving my comfort zone, or being too scared to undertake something that has been deemed as not socially acceptable.

For far too long I have found myself taking so much for granted and wasting so much time that could be better spent bettering myself and enjoying life, instead finding myself putting things off like I have plenty of time to do them in the future. This is the reason that I love those little experiences that you have every so often in life, something that you see, hear or feel that has such a profound effect on the way that you think and changes your entire outlook and perspective on life.. The only way I can describe it is the sudden bombardment of an overwhelming feeling of 'I need to go out and make the most of every moment before it's too late'.

These experiences can come in so many different forms and can occur at the most unexpected of times, like a brick wall of realisation striking you in right in the mind and especially in the feels until it literally is all that you can think about. I read a book yesterday, a book that most of you will probably be familiar with called Looking For Alaska, a book which I actually managed to finish within one single day because I was so engrossed in the storyline, characters and style of writing. Within this book was a quote that really struck me:


'I go to seek a great perhaps'

We all have a great perhaps, something that we want to achieve or a life goal to conquer. A great perhaps doesn't just have to be the search for thrills, adventure and experiences, but it can also be the search for a more content state of mind and self, a sense of being complete or whole. It seems to be the point that pretty much everyone wants to achieve, when life feels exactly how it was meant to feel, where you can look back on your mistakes and decisions without wondering what perhaps could have been but instead realising that they made you who you are today. It can be that turning point in life where you realise that you things that you find yourself worrying about constantly, stopping you from living your life to the full, really aren't that important or relevant any more. It can be the moment in life where you finally discover yourself and an understanding of where we fit into this vast wide world of ours. 

The harsh reality is that not everything is going to go your way all of the time. You may not have the best start in life, or find yourself in the most ideal of situations but that doesn't mean that you can't make the most out of everything that you do have, including all of those little things in life that most people take for granted. Do something with your life that makes a significant difference, not just to you but others around you. Put all of your energy, heart, mind and soul into getting the most that you possibly can out of each day, experience new things, visit new places, laugh uncontrollably, tell the girl that you have a crush on that she's pretty, start each day with a positive outlook on life and an open mind. Maybe were not supposed to live our lives in a state of anticipation of a great perhaps, but rather live for each and every moment as it happens. 

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