01/24/2010 Food Certainty

I am starting another writing class tomorrow, and over the past couple weeks I've gotten back to doing some writing warm ups. One of the resources I've consulted is Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones. In it, she strongly encourages making "writing practice" a part of one's writing regimen. "Writing practice" involves sitting down with pen and paper and just writing about WHATEVER. The pen should never stop and there should be little thought to proper form or punctuation. It should be almost meditative. And if your mind is full of self-deprecating thoughts, she recommends starting your writing practice by getting it all out.

So I sat down tonight with my notebook and started writing about how no matter how much I would love to become a writer, all my work will come to nothing and I will be burned out forever (again- Natalie says the more we get all this crap out, the more we learn to just ignore it. So I decided to go all out with Sunday night negativity).

Then, as my pen flowed across the paper, I started writing about my typical day of work. Not work as I know it now, but work as I would love it to be. Without going into much detail, let's just say that it involved coffee, a cozy home office, midday cucumber sandwiches, and sprints to the local coffee shop for a change in scenery. Sha-right. As if. We know life does not just align itself the way we desire (there's that whole issue of money and health insurance and groceries and rent), and even our "dream" situation would come with its own list of pros and cons.

I think this is why I love to cook. Whoa- change of subject, yes? But hear me out- food and cooking creates for us a constant. It is stable and inviting. You don't cook because you HAVE to. While we HAVE to work, none of us HAVE to cook- we could just stock up on tator tots and frozen meals if we wanted. And if a meal causes us a lot of stress because the garlic burns while our backs are turned, well there is always the option to pitch it and call for a pizza. No matter how sucky my day is, no matter how drained I am, I can always look forward to cooking a good meal. And I know I just posted a similar sentiment last week, but it's just a thought I've been considering a lot recently. We cooked some great meals last week, and looking back, I felt happier as the week progressed, even though I had a lot on my plate at work. It probably also helped that I had last Monday off. Curses!