Lessons of The Oyster Po’Boy

I’ve read that heroin addicts are always chasing after that initial first amazing high, and they can never seem to find it again. It is the memory of that first out-of-this-world high that keeps them hooked. I think that longing for things to be exactly as how I remembered them, is why I am always wanting to try new things. I often find my repeat visits to places, or to restaurants, or to shows or movies that I have already seen, or to old neighborhoods which I used to live in, to be somewhat disappointing. Then, I feel deflated. I’ve unfairly built the experience up in my head, and it’s floating around like a pink cloud, and then the reality of the place smacks me up side the head, and the pink cloud turns gray and starts raining.

Yesterday I had one of those experiences that reminded me of this quirk of mine. A couple of years ago, on a perfectly beautiful sunny day, my husband and I stopped at this quaint little shack, which holds very limited working hours. They sell mostly fried oyster po’boys, at this sweet little sea shanty. That day, I had the most amazing oyster sandwich that I have ever had, and most likely, will ever have again, in my lifetime. I have heard that oysters are aphrodisiacs. That day, that sandwich was so good, it was orgasmic. The perfectly cooked oysters were falling out of the fresh baked bread, just toppling out of it like marbles, there were so many of them. The remoulade sauce was precisely the consummate accent, to accentuate the incredible taste of the oysters. Finally, the farm fresh lettuce and tomato, was the perfect compliment to ease any guilt one may (fleetingly) have of the fried food orgy. I half expected a perfect pearl to be at the bottom of my little paper bowl, after I devoured this seafood ecstasy.

The next time we went to the oyster bar, my husband and I were sadly and yet, not really unexpectedly, disappointed. The sandwich was a poor substitute for what we had been dreaming about, since our last experience there. The cooks were stingy with the oysters in the sandwich this particular time, and there was too much, not so perfectly baked doughy bread, for the amount of meat on the sandwich. I hate when meatballs or hot dogs are overcome by their carbohydrate coverings. Do you remember Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?” commercials? This experience was easily, “Where’s the oyster bed?” My husband and I wrote that day off as an “off” day for the cook, and we let it go.

Now as I mentioned, this restaurant keeps strange hours, so it’s hard for people to get their fix when they want it. Memories of that first, perfect concoction had been swirling in my mind for quite sometime, so I called the shack, in the middle of the afternoon to make a takeout order, that we would have for our dinner. I couldn’t wait to open the white paper wrapping, expecting the oysters to burst forth, in all of their juicy glory, begging to be my physical and emotional rapture, to give me a glow that would last me the entire weekend, at least. Instead when I opened the wrapper, it was like a bag of chips that deflates with a “Whoosh!”, letting out all of the air it held, to keep a couple of broken chips of chips, floating around in the bag, like astronauts. This time the oyster sandwich was a minuscule helping of an over-breaded, over-fried oyster-like substance, slathered in goopy sauce, shredded brown iceberg lettuce, on stale bread. In short, it sucked.

I wonder if it’s not really so bad to go to the same places, and to do the same things, as it is more important, to keep my expectations in check. It is said that comparison is the thief of happiness. Why should I compare every experience with the same person, or the same place, or the same thing, with my best previous experience or encounter with these same entities? Is that fair? Maybe I should be more willing to look at things with fresh eyes, and an open mind and to drop my expectations (which are often built up to fantasy level, using my very clever, but not always realistic imagination)? Maybe in subsequent encounters, I should look for the hidden nuances which I may have missed, having been overwhelmed with speechless joy when trying something for the first time. I should also remind myself that I am no longer “the same me” who had this encounter, the first time. In that sense, everything is really “the first time” for anything, because a new layer of me, has shown up to the familiar experience, having gone through a lot of life, in between visits with a favorite person, or to a treasured place or with an adored thing.

So in the end, I didn’t get a great oyster sandwich yesterday. It wasn’t even a good oyster sandwich. But I do think that I got a little “pearl” of wisdom and self awareness that I’ll keep tucked in my pocket. It will be good to pull out this little pearl in my mind, to remind me, that the next time that I feel disappointed or let down, maybe I just need to look for what I am getting out of this particular experience, during this unique go around, with it. There’s always something unique to notice, or some lesson to be gleaned, from just about anybody or anything. My little pearly wisdom will remind me that pearls are hard and rare to find, in a pile of sand, being held in any one oyster shell. While I can enjoy and elate in the fleeting pearl moments of life, I am reminded that it is all of the common sand, that forms the pearls, in the end. And sand has its merits, too. Sand makes the pearls. All is needed to get a full appreciation of life. The common ordinary moments are the sands of time in life, and along the way, the pearly highlighted moments stand out, in order to remind us of how really, utterly breathtaking life can be.

Quotes About Pearls And Oysters. | Oysters, Pearls, Pearl quotes

Pink Perfect Friday

154 Best Friday images in 2020 | Its friday quotes, Friday humor, Funny  quotes

Hi friends!!! HAPPY FRIDAY!!!! Happy Favorite Things Friday! On Friday, I stay at the surface. There’s nothing serious about Fridays, except for fun. On Fridays, I list three favorite things, songs, books, websites, videos, health products, etc. of mine, and I strongly encourage my readers to list some of your favorites in the Comments section. Please check out previous Friday listings for more fabulous, fun, fantastic things to enjoy on your flashy, and fearless Friday!

The video below is my first favorite. I just adore this little girl. I can completely empathize and commiserate with her. My friend sent this adorably cute clip to our text chat earlier this week and I was cry-laughing, while watching it. When I was in kindergarten, someone stole my Little Bo Peep birthday hat, at a birthday party and I got stuck with the Humpty Dumpty one. I can still feel the outrage and the injustice of it all. (and you are saying, Wow, this lady sure knows how to hold a grudge!) Apparently, I had one of the biggest temper tantrums of my life at that party. Here’s the video:

Blue Diamond Wasabi Soy Almonds – Oh my, are these yummies yummy!! It’s a standing joke in my house, when my kids look dubious about what I am cooking, and they ask “So, what’s for dinner?”, I always answer, pertly, calmly, succinctly and definitively, with one word, “Yum.” We have “Yum” almost every single night. These almonds are really and truly Yum. No they are YUM (in caps, they are that good.) I know that it is gross and terribly poor manners to lick your fingers (doubly so during a pandemic), but I still sneak and lick my fingers after eating these almonds, when I am sure that no one is looking. Yum. Yum. Yum.

Neutrogena Hydro Boost products – Walgreens is one the few stores that I still go into regularly these days. Sometimes I just wander around it aimlessly for lack of anything better to do, until I get spooked by anyone coughing. These Neutrogena brand skincare products were under a BOGO promotion there a few weeks ago, so I went all in. And I am so happy that I did! I like all of the products in this line, but I am particularly enamored with the Bright Boost Resurfacing Micro Polish. I keep the tube of it in my shower and I exfoliate my facial skin while showering, being the multi-tasker that most of us women are, in this world. The product is not harsh but pretty effective. I like the simplicity and the reasonableness in price of the Neutrogena line.

Have a great weekend!!!!

dopl3r.com - Memes - Admit it! We all had a pencil like this in our school  time

The Shield

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(Twitter K. McIntire)

*****My heart and my prayers are with all who are affected by Hurricane Laura.

I so appreciate the picture shown above. It shows the humanity, and the empathy of the people who I know, and it depicts the good hearts of the many, many people who I have met, throughout my almost 50 years of life. This has been such a terrifying, painful, unbelievable year for so, so many people, all over the world. Today, let’s just rise above the noise, and the hatred, and the fear, and the anger, and the judgment, and the loneliness, and the bewilderment, and the need for control, and let’s just hold each other tight. I am so thankful for all of you who read my blog. Please, just feel me holding you tight. Close your eyes to all of the frightening appearances, close your ears to all of the competing, senseless noise, and only allow yourself to feel the soft, peaceful, yet impenetrable embrace of Love. Rise above it all and let Love sustain you. You are Love. You are filled with Love. Love cannot be destroyed. Let Love sustain you.

One of the more hip, modern daily horoscopes that I read, told me that today was a day that I needed to “Shield My Field.” There is no greater shield than the power of Love. Today, let Love “shield your field”. You are made of Love. It replenishes. Give Love freely to yourself, and to others, and to the clear, bright-lit vision of what the world really is, underneath all of the maddening noise, made by the weaker side of humanity (hello, egos), to provoke fear and helplessness. You have all of the materials that you need, to “shield your field”, every single day. Embrace that fact, and walk boldly into your life today. You are shielded with the most warm, calming, powerful, peaceful, eternal force that has ever been, or will ever exist, until the end of forever. Accept your shield. You can do whatever you need to do today, with the power of your shield. You are protected. The lower parts of all of us, and in all of the world, cower in awe and humility in the face of Love. And Love picks up those low, low, scared, trying desperately to control, hopeless, full of fear, full of pain, parts of us, and Love embraces them, and Love shines a Light on them, and Love cleanses them until they disappear as if they never existed. Because they don’t. They are just figments of our own imaginations, in stories that we have made up about our lives. Love shows us that we can always take up our shields and walk away from the shadows. This power of Love has NEVER left us. The world is just the world. We can pick up our shields and we look at the world through the lens of Love, or we can stay mired in our dark and fearful thoughts. That’s our free will. I think what the world needs now, is for more of us to pick up our shields of Love, and to walk confidently and calmly, with the force of Love. When we remind ourselves of the reality of what really makes us, and what really sustains us, forever and forever, others cannot help but to be reminded of that fact, too. Others are reminded to pick up their shields of Love. When we are holding our shields of Love, and we do this all together, we can open our eyes again, and we can open our ears again, and we will see a whole, new beautiful vision of the world. We will see our world as it actually is – Love. Nothing more, nothing less. Pure, Beautiful, Eternal Love.

The Way

My husband and I go about doing a lot of things, in two entirely different ways. My husband is methodical and analytical. I am intuitive and impulsive and impatient. He tends to do things more slowly and thoughtfully than me. My motto is “Get ‘er done fast, hope for the best, and we’re strong enough, and smart enough, to be able to deal with any related fallout.” My husband’s motto is “Get it done right the first time, no matter how long and boring of a process it takes.” We have made peace with each other’s differences . . . . for the most part. We get each other. We are yin and yang. On the rare times that we have been at the grocery store together, I toss things into the shopping cart with no rhyme or reason, until my cart looks the the Grinch’s overfilled sleigh, and he halts the whole production, to organize the food in the cart, like he was packing it with the precision of a nuclear engineer, avoiding detonation. When picking restaurants, my husband likes to study Yelp, with careful consideration of each and every review. My method is more, “Let’s just wing it, and stop at the next place that looks cute.”

Neither way is “right or wrong.” We have had amazing successes and utter failures, using both methodologies, going about our business. I distinctly remember sitting in a restaurant that we had picked using my “looks cute method” and my husband reading the Yelp reviews (after we had ordered our food) about how many people had been hospitalized with food poisoning after eating there. Overall though, when my husband and I work together, taking in consideration our mutual love and admiration for each other, making room for both of our ways to meld into one shared familial life, it has worked out happily and successfully, for both of us. This fact, is a good reminder for me right now, living in a world that feels like it is in such disillusioning disarray. So many of us are craving certainty right now. We are all craving the “the right answers” and “the right way” to fix everything, right now. We have to remain hopeful and optimistic and open-minded that there may be many effective processes to get us back to balance, and we have to have faith in one another, that while going at solutions differently, most of us want the same things. We all want a sense of security, a feeling of belonging and the confidence of mattering. If we make it our collective purpose for all of us to have the ability to achieve these important feelings for each of ourselves, how we get there, to this collective peace and balance, won’t be nearly as important as the end results.

There Is No One Way | Image Quotes | Know Your Meme

Shaken Up

There was a recent little on-line spat between a writer who wrote a depressing piece for Linked In, making an argument that New York City will never be the same again, due to this pandemic, and Jerry Seinfeld, the comedian, who rebutted this article, with his own opinion piece for The New York Times. Jerry was very sharp and angry and defensive, claiming that he himself will never give up on New York City. The original writer, a Manhattan comedy club owner, claims that many people have woken up to the idea that with today’s technology, many people can now live wherever they would like to live, by mostly working from home, and many people are finding other places to be cleaner, more affordable, and more restorative than living in New York City. The writer, James Altucher, suggests that the mass exodus from the city is not temporary.

I like visiting New York City. I have never had a desire to live there, but much like Jerry Seinfeld’s biggest argument about why New York City will make a roaring comeback, I know that there is a resilient, teeming, revitalizing energy in New York City that is seemingly non-replicable, anywhere else. I have felt it every time I have been there. This force of energy is, overwhelmingly, the best feature of the city, in my opinion.

That being said, I’m not going to write another piece about the redeeming and not so redeeming qualities of New York City. That is done and written ad nauseam, by more qualified writers than me. I think what struck me the most, about both of these articles, was the longing and the sadness which both men seemed to express about the loss of vitality that the city is currently experiencing. If, for argument’s sake, we want to call New York City, the energy center, the heart, and the pulse of our country, than New York City is currently being assisted by a early model pace maker with extremely weak batteries.

What I think a lot of us are deeply missing right now, no matter where we reside, even in our own bodies, is a sense of aliveness, liveliness, exuberance and vibrancy. When you feel limited, it is hard to get excited. When you can’t make plans with any sense of a good probability of the plans coming to fruition, it’s hard to muster up enthusiasm. Energy goes where energy flows and right now, many of us feel stagnant and restless, when we are not mired in apprehension and fear.

When we dropped off our youngest son at his off-campus university apartment last week, I got a little spoonful of that excited energy back. Much like NYC, there is a sizzling, underlying buzz that occurs, uniquely, in college towns. The energy there is youthful, hopeful, sometimes blindly optimistic, but full of wonder and desire and ardor and confidence, bordering on cockiness. It’s the kind of energy that fuels the flames in everyone’s heart, no matter what your age.

I am a believer that there will be a lot of changes in how and where people live and learn and work, even after a vaccine helps to tamp down the coronavirus. I think that this pandemic has been an eye-opening experience for the whole body of the world. But, even though science was never my favorite subject, even I know the first law of thermodynamics:

The first law of thermodynamics, also known as Law of Conservation of Energy, states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; energy can only be transferred or changed from one form to another. (lumenlearning.com)

We may think that the world has become listless and lifeless, but I believe that the energy, the very Lifeforce that sustains all of us, is alive and well and flowing. Energy cannot be destroyed. It is flowing fervently in the minds of the scientists and the medical experts as they race to find solutions to stopping the devastation of the virus. Energy is whirling in the passionate hearts of teachers who are having to find whole new ways to reach their students, and to help them to learn. It’s pulsating in the creativity of innovators who are changing the way they do business, in order to stay afloat in uncertain waters. And of course this Lifeforce keeps our medical teams, physically and emotionally resilient, as they put in long, hard, taxing days, doing their best, to save lives.

I think that on some of these seemingly endless days of the pandemic, when I feel lethargic and listless, and maybe even slightly depressed, I am going to envision that my energy stores are flowing somewhere else, where they are greatly needed. I am going to pray that my energy is giving vitality to where it is much demanded, such as for a coronavirus patient, struggling with everything they have, to just hang on to life. Remember, what we give, is always returned to us. I imagine that the good, good feeling of visualizing my own energy being used where it is needed, will restore my own coffers more quickly than I could have ever imagined, opening my mind, and my heart and my soul to possibilities which I would have never thought of before. Maybe the world’s energy has been shaken and stirred by this pandemic, like a horrendous storm or a planet-sized snow globe, but when everything finally settles down again, the world’s energy will be balanced like it has never been before, and we will be in total awe, of the easy flow of it all. I hope so, with the most fervent energy still left in my heart.

Path of Least Resistance

When life gives you a crazy ride with a pandemic, make jeeps!

I loved reading this news story about teachers who are trying to make this school year a little less scary and a little more fun for their students. At the “meet the teacher” event at the elementary school pictured above, the teachers handed their students “keys” to their individual cars. What a gift teachers are to this world! Today, my daughter starts her junior year of high school, in her bedroom. I am so thankful to her teachers, who are doing their best to make this hybrid “in-person/online” classroom situation work out for everyone, the best that they can, on a daily basis.

I’ve been reflecting on the idea that it is the shared love that we have for things, and people and places and passions, in our lives that really connects us. Think of what a unifying feeling it is, to share love for the same people, the same team, the same country, the same pets, the same state, the same school, the same hobby, the same favorite musician or band, the same ideals, the same religion, the same books, the same home, the same beach, the same profession, the same car, the same food, the same restaurant . . . . It is so refreshing and happily reflective to find people who share in our loves. It multiplies our joy.

Love really is the connector that lifts us, and sustains us, and gets us through our journey of life. And just because we feel a special connection to the people who love a lot of the same things that we do, we can still have a respect and a happiness that other people get zeal and joy from the things and the people and the places and the passions, which speak to them. We don’t have to convert others to our loves. We can just feel gratefulness that other people have found their own loves and their own passions, because the bottom line of it all, is that if we stay in our own lanes, there is no traffic. (I read that quote on Twitter recently and it has become my much-needed daily reminder mantra, as a well-intentioned, but highly overprotective woman/mother/wife/friend/family member during these strange and ambiguous times.)

If we are all riding on the easy street of flowing with our own loves, and our own passions, and our own inspirations, and our own well-being, and we are all living in the faith and the trust that others are capable of doing the same for themselves, and that there are enough pathways for all of us in this world, traffic jams and accidents and mass casualties, are a lot less likely to happen. If we trust that we can find what sustains us, and allow others to do the same for themselves, love flows. I think that life is meant to flow along the easy, light, beautiful, nourishing, sustaining energy of Love. It’s certainly the path of least resistance. And the path of Love is always wide open.

Soul Sunday

Good morning friends and readers. I hope that this post finds you in a peaceful place. Sundays, are a free flow of words in poetry. Sundays are poetry workshop days at Adulting – Second Half. I write a poem or I procure a poem from one of my readings, written by someone else. I strongly encourage you to add your poems to my Comments section. This is a no judgment zone. This is just a place to freely express what sits on your heart. Have a restful, rejuvenating day! Here is my poem I wrote for today. I am sending lots of love to you out there. I hope that you can feel it and that you can shelter in the cocoon of Love, at least for today.

What Lies on My Heart

I’m so scared, I want to stay holed up in a ball

In the safest confines of my home.

I’m so bored, I want to jump in my car, and take it,

To go to wherever my boldest imagination,

Finds an intriguing dot on a map, and then some more.

I don’t want to get ill and more so, I don’t want to be the cause

Of anyone’s pain nor terrible, breathless demise.

But you can’t live a joyous life, without a dash of risk.

But, but, but . . . . . . . . back and forth.

Back and forth.

Back

And forth . . . . . . .

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Nobody talks about their “daily doings” anymore.

Because Everyone has become judge and juror.

Nobody wants to be “cancelled,” and therefore Everyone is “cancelled”.

Cancelled from expressing our true authentic selves.

But how do you learn from what can’t be acknowledged nor revealed?

It’s lonely when you can’t be real.

And those who are still expressing, tend to take it too far.

They have absorbed all of the energy of the unsaid,

And all of the energy of the unfelt,

And it explodes and it bursts and it erupts out of them,

Too forcefully.

And the meaning is lost in the angry noise.

And the rest of us stay safely quiet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My mind whirls around in jumbled circles, these days.

Everything is a decision, a weighing of chance.

Everything, Every Single Day.

Everything.

Every. Single. Day.

Again and again.

It’s exhausting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But my heart does tell me that everything is going to be okay.

My heart tells me that everything is okay.

My heart says for me, to just be quiet, and to be still.

Be still and know that I am.

Be still. Know.

I am.

And then I take a deep breath and I’m peaceful again.

Sky-Blue Pink

“My dad invented a new color for us: sky-blue pink. It’s what he called the blending of day and night in the evening sky. It was his favorite color, and so it’s been mine. ” – Kate Craw

I took the photograph, seen above, while driving home, just me and my husband and my daughter, from taking our youngest son up to his apartment, close to his university, where he will live, with his best friends, while taking his sophomore college classes, online for this semester. We helped him to unpack (as much as he would let us do it). We went to the obligatory grocery store trip, to make sure that our son started the fall schooling season, all stocked up with nourishment (which made us feel better about the ultimate good-bye), and then, we sat in the apartment with our youngest son and one of his friends and our other son, who is a senior at the same university. We ate take-out burgers and cupcakes and we laughed and we lingered until we felt the obvious energetic itching, from all of the boys, for us to leave, and to make our way home, to our own fall schedules and individual lives.

I felt strangely quiet, yet peaceful, on the way home. I knew that this was the right decision for our family, to allow our boys to have a go, at a makeshift try, at a less-than-normal year at college. It makes a mama’s heart happy, to see her children excited, and joyful and bursting at the seams for a little more freedom, a little more independence, and a little more hope – at any age, but especially during these difficult times.

As I stared out of the window, at the beautiful sunset, it felt like the perfect gift from the Universe. The sunset was a lovely closing curtain on what has been one of the strangest, longest, scariest, yet in many ways, most meaningful summers of our lives. This beautiful sunset officially closed out Summer of 2020, for me. I will never forget this summer for the rest of my days. None of us will. But I have a strange inkling that how I am reflecting on all of the events of this past summer now (the long summer that really started for us, in the middle of a shell-shocked spring), will soften and change, as I survive past it and I absorb the lessons that it has brought to me and to our family and to our whole world, for that matter. I have a deep, knowing sense that the jarring events of the summer of 2020 will blend more perfectly with the ultimate destinations of each of our lives, and that this blending will happen in an unusually, entirely unexpected, beautiful way. I think that ultimately I will remember 2020 as a sky-blue pink year – a year that was more beautiful than I initially thought that it was, mostly because it was so vivid, and jarring, and colorful, and unexpected and memorable. It will be a year that reminded me and my family and my friends and all of us, about the fragility (and therefore, the breath-taking preciousness) of the gift of living a life. If there was ever a year that made us soak in the individual quiet moments, 2020 would be it. If there was ever a year that asked us to reflect, 2020 would be it. If there was ever a year that made us give up the idea that we had all or any of “the answers”, 2020 would be it. If there was ever a year that asked us to just sit still and to breathe in a sky-blue pink sunset, 2020 would be it. And in some crazy, weird way, I think that I am grateful for it. Only time will tell.

Merry Friday!!!

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Happy Friday!! Happy Favorite Things Friday!! Happy Holidays! HA! New readers, on Fridays, I am not serious. On Fridays, I keep it on the surface, in the material world. Fridays are called “Favorite Things Friday” here at Adulting- Second Half and that is when I list three favorite songs, books, products, whatevers that I have enjoyed experiencing in my life. I strongly request that you add more to the Favorites, in my Comments. This year, sometimes it is best to keep it all on the surface, as much as you can. The deep waters run really deep this year. Today, it’s Friday, so let’s just float! Floaty Friday! Remember, too, to check out previous Friday blogs to see more favorites.

My regular readers know that my family has three dogs. We have Ralphie, the Labrador, Josie, the rough collie, and Trip, the Boykin spaniel puppy. It has taken me a while to find just the right kibble food for our fur friends. I did research online, I asked friends for suggestions, and I checked in with my vet. For at least a year, I have been feeding a mix of three dog foods that miraculously, all three dogs like to eat. All of our dogs have healthy skin and fur and none of them are overweight. I can order all three of these bagged kibble foods on Amazon, and I can have them delivered right to my door, which is a total back saver. Here is my magic mix of my three favorite dog foods (and of course, I often add in some cheese or broth or chicken or salmon, on occasion).

Hill’s Science Diet Dry Dog Food, Adult, Sensitive Stomach & Skin Recipes – This one boasts prebiotic fiber and chicken meat. I think this is the food that has helped firm up the stools, which is a plus in anyone’s book. My lawn appreciates this dog food.

Victor Dog Food Grain-Free Active Dog and Puppy Beef Meal and Sweet Potato – This dog kibble is particularly suited to active, sporting dogs, which my dogs all are – unfortunately, we don’t count any couch potatoes among our fur family. This one also has a formulation to help with their immune systems, and who doesn’t need a good immune system, this year in particular??

Wellness CORE Natural Dry Dog Food Original Turkey & Chicken – This is another one full of protein and omega oils. This is the one that supposedly boasts a great taste. (I haven’t personally tried it, but my dogs do empty their bowls.)

I have a big container in my garage where I mix all three bags of dog food together and these three bags last me a good month of feeding our fur babies.

Have a great weekend, my dear friends and readers!! Start making out your Christmas/holiday lists. It’s good to have something to look forward to, in the near future!!!

The Book in Your Heart

This has been a strange, limbo-like week for me. I’m still getting over my chest cold. My kids have been leaving our home, for their fall plans, in dribs and drabs. We will take my youngest son up to his apartment, on his college campus, this Friday, and my daughter starts her online classes for her junior year of high school on Monday. The other two boys are already away, doing their thing. My husband just ordered more home office equipment, as what has always felt like sort of a temporary situation – this working from home, is five months into being semi-permanent. I guess that our “official fall schedule” will start on Monday. So, this week, I feel like I am just treading water. This good-bye to summer is dragging out. I’m a little over this “long good-bye.” I’m ready for the next thing. As it is said, the best is yet to come, and I am ready to swim towards it.

Earlier this week we watched a show called, Street Food Latin America. This was a tricky challenge for me, to watch a show centering on delicious food, because I am trying to not eat after dinner every night, as an attempt to shed some of the pandemic pounds that I have put on. Still, the show was a good watch and the most intriguing cook on Street Food Latin America, was a woman named Pato Rodriguez. Her food stand, in the middle of the busy central Buenos Aires mercado, was obviously her life’s passion. In the show, she says that her customers ask her why she doesn’t have any children and she says, “You, my customers, are my children, and you are very spoiled!” And her customers were obviously spoiled. Her concoctions looked amazing. Even though she runs an unassuming food stand in the middle of a giant mercado, Pato Rodriguez has attracted famous Argentinian food critics to come to her stand, and to write about her amazing delicacies (the same writers who do the reviews for Michelin rated restaurants). When someone is absolutely “one with what they do”, so obviously living their passions and their dreams, their joy just oozes out of them. It can’t contain itself, and that joy is so contagious. I instantly liked Pato and I wished for her, nothing but a life filled with continued zeal for her cooking and sharing it with others. I could feel her deep enthusiasm for her life’s work through my TV screen. Here is a quote that she said, that was so right on the money, that I made my husband pause our viewing, so that I could write it down verbatim:

“I realized that people eat first with their eyes, then with their mouths, and then with their hearts.” _ Pato Rodriguez

That quote really made me ponder about how much it applies not only just to food, but to anything that we end up loving in life. At first we see something or someone who intrigues and captivates us, we devour our experience with that thing or that person or that place, and then, no matter what the outcome, whether the experience was a decidedly good one, or a mostly negative one, the moments of our focus on that particular happening in our lives, are imprinted on our hearts forever. The book of our lives, chapter by chapter, is kept in the cozy, safe, warm library of our heart. And we can open the book up and we can read it, and we can savor the experiences or at the very least, learn from the experiences, again and again and again. Our heart stores it all for us. As summer is closing, let a new chapter begin, and may it be one of the very best chapters, in each of our books!