What’s on your plate?

“Eat something green or else your stomach will turn grey.”

Popovers

Do not open the oven door.

While this may seem like an appeal kids would shout to Hansel and Gretel, it is actually the key step to one of my favorite foods: popovers.

A cage inside me

I carry a cage around inside me.
In there I keep all those dreams deemed too fragile to birth,
Afraid they’ll evaporate with the sun.
Too many early hopes already now gone.
Is there energy left to build new ones?

Cracked

The dirt road undulated below my feet as I walked around the lake. Fresh rainwater had puddled in the troughs, and I had to step carefully in sections that were peppered with the mirrored holes. As the dirt gave way to pavement, the crests were highlighted by cracking of the surface.

Frost heaves.

Won’t you be my neighbor?

My mom has a way of making any intersection of concrete car paths that surround wooden domiciles into a neighborhood. Every place we’ve lived, she’s drawn people from their homes and connected them with the other unknown hermits living next door. After these block parties, no longer were houses filled with faceless bodies, but with folks who shared holiday recipes and lawn care tips.

Soul Restoration

As I sat talking with some friends at dinner, I heard in the background someone state, “Great! More quinoa!”

“Nooooo! No! No! No! No,” replied my brain.

“Nooooo! No! No! No! No,” replied my mouth.

And that’s when I knew I was overdrawn on my soul.

Egg UKO

Sitting in one of my kitchen drawers is an inch-high, red plastic cylinder that stands upon a white base about an inch and a half wide. On the top of this cylinder is a white, spring-loaded concave dome with a hole in the center. When this dome is pressed, a needle pokes above about a centimeter through the center hole.

My husband was first introduced to this item in an unfriendly way. Reaching into the drawer blindly for another item, he took hold of the object and pressed upon the top. “Ouch!” What medieval torture device was I hiding in the kitchen?

What Dreams May Come

What dreams have you had for your life? Which ones have stayed with you? Which ones have you let fade to the background?

I have recently had two events happen that have caused me to think about my own dreams for my life in new ways.

What’s your motivation for doing chores?

I don’t like doing dishes.

Even as I write this, I have a pots and pans from dinner two nights ago still on the stove and a handful in the sink. (As much as I don’t like dishes, I like a filled sink even less. How can one clean the dishes when they are spilling over the confinements of the metal basin?)

This wasn’t necessarily always the case. As a young child

Ninth grade Gandhi

Bonnie exuded difference. Now in a high school freshman biology class, this may not seem that unique. Who isn’t trying to find a fresh way to express themselves? To be set apart from the crowd in some way?

But Bonnie was different in that these thoughts never seemed to cross her mind. She was at ease in her own skin, and that peace of mind radiated from her. Quite a feat for most adults, nevertheless a fourteen year old. To a ninth grader, her peaceful and old-soul presence made you feel like you were sitting near Gandhi.