What We’re Eating and Drinking – Cuban Fusion!
Sometimes a dinner comes outta nowhere. I had no urge to cook tonight (a pretty regular occurrence!) so I poured some red and turned up Pavarotti (inspired by a local radio station that plays him often.) It could have been the delicious Saint Estephe, a favorite at Casa Bouvarez, or the “Nessun Dorma”, or connecting with you via this blog before I started cooking, but somehow, I came up with a good one!
Tostones (Fried Green Plantains), Sautéed Broccoli, Ground Turkey Patties and a mold of Red Beans, Shallots, Parsley and Basmati Rice.
Christine: Yum! And look at how perfect the presentation is! Flower stems and rounds of rice and IKEA napkins. Sigh. I’m also glad to see that the bottle of wine is almost empty. Happy Friday!
What We’re Talking About – The Hamster Wheel
As you know and as I’ve mentioned before on here, I have a tendency to want to do everything – things I have the time for, and things I don’t; things that I have a talent for, and things I don’t, things I love and things I don’t. In addition, I’ve inherited some kick-ass worry genes, which means that I can worry like a champ about all of this and even more about the things I’m not doing . I can even worry about stuff that doesn’t exist and may never, ever exist. Awesome, I know. A psychologist would say that I continue doing this because I’m getting something out of it. And I sure as hell am! I get to do a lot of interesting things, talk to good/crazy/boring/evil/gifted/daft people and learn more about our world and the humans that populate it. And in my head, I can create the illusion that I have some dominion over all this activity just by fretting about it. Brilliant, I know. In my brief moments of lucidity, I do realize though, that in acting this way, I also create unnecessary stress and anxiety, often lose sight of the best use of my time, and more importantly, I sometimes lose sight of those who should be getting a bigger chunk of my time, attention and energy. So this Friday night, like so many in the past, is turning out to be a confessional. I bring my sins to the table and hope to god that if I put them out there and we pick them apart, it’ll be easier to spot and stop them when they pop up again. Off I go now to figure out the right penance and how to atone…
Christine: Big talks in the kitchen(s) tonight! It must be the change of seasons that’s inspiring this self-analysis (a transformation that we can FINALLY see happening here in the Hudson Valley–four days before the beginning of April for cripe’s sake) and also the new moon that will be coming to us on Sunday (why do I always infuse mysticism into everything?). Anyway, I know very well that spinning, churning, seething wheel–of the mind, of the body, of all those patterns and habits that we want to change but just.can’t.seem.to. It’s why we have grey hair at our temples! And bags under our eyes! And are soooo crabby sometimes!
There’s synergy in our conversation tonight, once again. I think we’re both stirring up a lot of mind goop with all of the writing and the posting and the laying bare that we’re doing on this blog. We’re bound to get stuck in it once in awhile, right? I’m certainly not one to assign penance or encourage you to atone for any perceived shortcoming. Hell, wading through All of The Stuff is difficult enough without adjudicating it! Nonetheless, I appreciate your propensity for Catholic analogies and I think you’re right about putting one’s sins (ahem) on the table for examination (and tagging), in the hopes that those acts will help one to recognize these sins (ahem) and eradicate them(!) the next time they show up. It’s a process, of course. And one that takes a lifetime (sigh). A yoga teacher I once studied with offered a similar teaching but used the metaphor of seeds & plants and weeding and pruning. She used to say that our bad “seeds” (the destructive habits, patterns of negativity, harmful behavior, or, in your case, all of the doing) are going to keep coming up, forever and ever. Our task, if we want to be happy, is to start to recognize these ‘bad’ seeds and to learn to pull them up before they sprout and grow into big redwood-sized trees of pain and negativity. Sure an redwood tree can be taken down, but that job requires a bulldozer and a saw and will leave a huge, gaping hole in its place. Better to know which seeds are the ones that grow into giant trees and tend to them early!
Sounds like you’re on the right track, sister. Hugs.