It is not about what you have, but what you do with what you have

I heard it somewhere, I am sure, but I can't find it anywhere now. Who said it?

So maybe it was a voice in my own head?

Perhaps; it does happen sometimes :)

I don't know.

Anyway, I like it: It's not about what you have; it's what you do with what you have.

As you already know from Leia's story (post: Meet The Princess), we bought a house last year over winter. With this lovely place came a garden, and a shed with a great passion fruit vine covering it from side to side. Now, I always made compotes, jams, and other preserves with fruit. All different kinds of fruit. But passion fruit is quite tropical, not so much native to Poland or England, where I've lived most of my life. I don't know how the years went for this vine before, as it was our first summer in a new house, but this harvest was amazing. I had two baskets of fruit, after a week two more baskets and then some more... And the vine was still in bloom...

But... it is not about what you have; it's what you do with what you have...

But...

...it is not about what you have; it's what you do with what you have...

I thought to myself, maybe a dessert?

I am quite good at making desserts, so I made a vanilla panna cotta with passion fruit coulis.

It was beautiful, and we enjoyed it very much. But I used two whole fruits for that.

What about the other four baskets?

Well, I could have easily just left them in the garden on the ground around the shed or brought them home and left them in baskets as decoration. But I thought: I will try to make something.

If it works - fine, if it doesn't, well, I will be able to say that at least I've tried.

So I got a pineapple and two kilograms of pears :)

To sum it up: I made passion fruit with pineapple and passion fruit with pear jams. Both are really nice. David took some to work, and the feedback was amazing. I worked a bit on the design, and they also look pretty, all home and handmade. Just the way I wanted and imagined them to be.

And they are perfect for a good cause, too!

That's precisely the point - with most new things, the matters I am not familiar with or don't feel confident approaching - I hesitate. I am not very comfortable making a decision to go for it.

And I don't mean here to cook jam with passion fruit or not to cook jam at all.

The point is: it's not about what I have but what I do with what I have.

On that note, I get a new day every single morning, and it is up to me what I will do with it.

If I choose each morning to set my day to do my best to be happy, then I can't see a reason why it won't happen.

Happiness inside is a very personal business; it is only up to me if I have it inside me or not.

It does not depend on the ridiculous traffic and terrible drivers, on the woman who chose to be rude

to me at work, or the man who purposely jumped the queue just in front of me in the supermarket.

I cannot change someone else's behavior, but I can choose my reaction to it :)

My (not so) new thing, but the one that still challenges me every day, is to keep it happy and cool throughout the day.

Because, after all, it is not about what I have but what I do with what I have.

#shihtzumaltese #rescuedog #princess #cutie #homemade

As you can see here, Leia approved of the jam and was happy to guard all baskets!