Maxims and sayings | These phrases that punctuate our lives

Maxims, thoughts, sayings heard or cultivated throughout our lives. Three personalities share these formulas of wisdom from proverbs that guide us and move us forward against winds and tides.

Colombe St-Pierre

Feast on identity and humanitarian expressions

It will not have escaped the following viewers The Chiefs ! that the mentor Colombe St-Pierre turns out to be fond of maxims and proverbs. But is there a particular aphorism engraved on the heart of the restorer?

The answer is yes, and for a long time. Everything goes back to her years of study at the Cégep du Vieux Montréal, when she scoured the shelves of the school library. From the height of her 18 years, she then swallowed large rations of gastronomic literature, being fascinated by the history of cooking.

She discovers a very special book: Physiology of taste, written in 1825 by the magistrate and fine gourmet Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. On the menu of this book are various philosophical and social reflections on gastronomic art, topped with a list of 20 aphorisms, by way of a preface. One of these has a very special resonance for the young Colombe St-Pierre: precept IV, namely “Tell me what you eat, I will tell you what you are”.

“Everyone knows this maxim, but we often don’t know where it comes from. Analyzing what people eat gives us a lot of information about our society, our habits, our mores, our customs. Asking questions about what we eat, that’s what I’ve been doing since the beginning. The physiology of tasteit’s one of the books that guided me the most in terms of what I do today”, confides the chef to The Press.

Flavor enhancer

Aphorisms are among the ingredients that have always spiced up Colombe St-Pierre’s life. She praises in particular their virtue of elevation and enhancement, qualifying them as “humanitarian guides”, illustrating this idea with a line taken from the Fabulous destiny of Amélie Poulain : he who knows his proverbs cannot be a bad person. “It’s a sympathetic and pacifist way of aspiring to become better and to reflect on our actions and gestures,” she notes.

And it is precisely in line with this benevolence that she spreads, among the happy or unhappy candidates of the program where she intervenes, thoughts of wisdom or comfort tailored to each one and to reward their courage to embark on this heightened culinary competition. “The idea is to lift them up, make them think about what they are and leave them a little something from their passage, a proverb that will follow them all their lives”, hopes. -She.

And who says chef says creativity. On one of her paintings on the wall, she regularly puts down maxims of her own. Like this one, inspired by the preparation of monkfish, an unsightly but so delicious fish: “When you’re good, you don’t have to be beautiful. » We let you digest the meaning.

Last of the show The Chiefs ! Monday at 8 p.m., on Radio-Canada

Sylvain Sarrazin, The Press

Roseline Filion

intuitive voice

Deep down, renowned diver Roseline Filion knew the time had come to retire from the sport.

It was in 2017. Five months earlier, she won her second Olympic medal with her faithful accomplice, Meaghan Benfeito, in Rio. She was celebrating a new triumph. She still had to give. To win. No ? “You know it inside when it’s time to stop…” she confides.

That’s what his little voice told him, at that moment. And she listened to her. Today, she confirms that it was the right decision.

Following your intuition: Roseline Filion makes it a point of honor. In her professional and personal life, she is guided by her inner voice.

The Quebec diver learned to follow her intuition thanks to her sports therapist, whom she consulted to learn how to better manage stressful situations, which are inevitable in the profession.

Athletes train for hours a day with the aim of improving their physical abilities and refining their techniques. Nothing seems left to chance. However, intuition is just as important on the springboard, assures M^me Filion.

“Sometimes I had the feeling that I was ready to try a new dive. Sometimes I was at the top of the platform and I thought I was going to blow my face! “, she says.

live for yourself

Her sports career behind her, does she continue to apply the same philosophy in her new life? Absolutely. Following your intuition is basically trusting yourself. “Living in doubt because you don’t know how you feel can get heavy. And doubt hinders all success,” she philosophizes.

At the microphone of Radio-Canada, where she collaborates on several programs, she cannot let herself be won over by doubt. “It’s live, there’s adrenaline! I try to stay true to who I am and trust myself. I do it for me, because I want to be there”, she underlines.

This is the other main principle that inspires him on a daily basis: to live for oneself and not for others. Self-centered ? No way. “You have a life to live, you have to live it as you want and you have to take responsibility for your decisions. You are there to make you happy,” she concludes.

Lea Carrier, The Press

Maya Cousineau Mollen

A route that is being built

Unlike others, Maya Cousineau Mollen never anchored her life on great sayings or ancient proverbs. Her philosophy of life, she built it over her reflections, her social commitment, the trials that crossed her path.

The Innu poet began by following the advice of her parents, who told her to study in order to help her family. And she wrote. Noted down all those fleeting thoughts that came to her mind that she didn’t want to let slip. Thoughts that ended up becoming collections of poetry. Last fall, she won the Governor General’s Award for her second collection, Children of the lichen. A first for a Francophone Aboriginal artist. “Sometimes there are intuitions that are so strong that at some point you have to listen to them. The breath of intuition is a good adviser,” she says. A phrase that could have become a maxim in his life.

Following her intuition: this is what guides her now, too. And always make sure to see both sides of the coin before judging. “Don’t just rely on one side of the coin, even though sometimes the subject might lead us to think that seeing one side is enough. »

Nevertheless, she was in an artist residency at the Maison de la literature, in Quebec, in the company of other poets, when two unequivocal thoughts emerged: “To go towards the other is to rush into a wall” and “Don’t let other people’s winter in”.

Throughout our conversation, his four cats take turns begging for his affection. “Her feline family”, as she calls it. To whom she gives all her love, unconditionally, which has seen members leave and new ones arrive. “My philosophy of love is this: to love also means letting go; accept that the happiness of the other may not be with me. »

Laila Maalouf, The Press