I have learnt a very nice French word from my dear French friend – ‘décant’…. as in English ‘decant’, a verb to describe decanting a bottle of wine. Besides in oenology, this word is actually used by the French people, applying to situation when one is preferred to wait slightly a bit in order to let the matter sink in further, allowing one to see more clearly the issue or matter, before drawing any conclusion or decide to take any action.
I must confess that in times of turmoil like now, when we are all bombarded with bad social media (oops… don’t get me wrong that there is a lot of good social media sharing that connects the world much faster and better….) but the bad social media can be detrimental to our mental health. It whips up fear, anxiety, making us becoming too quick to judge, impatient to validate the matter anymore before forwarding that piece of information to someone straight away because we feel so disturbed and desperate that we almost want the whole world to know our feeling and point…. yet what if that information lacks credibility? or it is false? Once it is being shared, it will be too late to retrieve with damage probably being done. What kind of damage? A vicious cycle and continuous streaming of distorting truth and perspective making this world more divided as ever. I am not just referring to the social media situation but also about the way we deal with our regular living on how to make a decision about things and people. Décant is therefore needed.
I hope therefore that our fellow friends including myself, to try sample this nice word ‘décant’. Maybe we should take a bit of time to let the matter sink in by gathering more facts with reflection, thinking, discernment and humility before we express our responsible views about people, matters or just about anything. Words are like yeast in a dough, a tiny small ingredient but it can make or break the bread. Maybe it is time for us to master these information overflow with wisdom, by giving normal people the benefit of doubt based on facts, so that we can exercise our human strength of love, empathy, understanding, mercifulness and respect in order to embrace differences in order to protect the common good of our one world.
I have been asked frequently about how to be a sophisticated host or person with good lifestyle. My humble take is, we can’t build that nice lifestyle without peace and calm so let’s decant the impurities in our lives as well !
Going Green
Back to some practical lifestyle tips – I want to recommend this superb top quality and environmental friendly French table linen known globally – our new partner – Garnier Thiebaut. Their stain resistant ‘Green Sweet’ collection provides such magical function to resist any liquid stain even with red wine stain! This collection, inspired by nature, mirrors the lotus effect. The leaves of the sacred lotus are always clean due to their hydrophobic surface. The self-cleaning properties of the plant have been replicated in a technical manner and applied to the textile of Garnier Thiebaut. With that, it already deserves all our support! Please find some of the selected collection in our E-Shop.
Sincerely yours,
Wendy SIU
Founder & CEO
