Thoughts From A Kitchen Sink

You know how it can be...you come home from a long day and you realize, "Crap, I have to make dinner! What the hell can I make?!" So, you start the pantry shuffle dance. You open a door and look in...you go to the fridge and stare at the blinding light and the shelves of non-inspirational stuff...so much....NOTHING TO EAT!

You move on next to your canned goods cupboard...and you crack open the doors...

...hoping that Rachel Ray will fall out onto the floor with your 30 minute meal of three ingredients. Bringing her own can opener with her so you don't have to do a thing. But, no, the bitch isn't in there. So you stare and stare as though inspiration will just jump off the shelf at you. Which of course can't happen as Inspiration went to Red Lobster for a nice sit-down meal; you're on your own.

So, a tad frustrated, you start throwing random things into a pot, everything you can put your hands on...everything but the kitchen sink. And, you hope that something edible will emerge.

Writing a blog can be the same. Especially if you write to keep on top of your creative A-Game. If you write to make yourself think in a cohesive manner, especially on days when you can't even recall the correct spelling of your own name. Especially on the days when you've got absolutely nothing... When the ghost of E.B. White leans on the office door jam and smiles with a knowing smile saying, "I know, it's not easy...really sucks to be you at the moment." Well, perhaps E.B. didn't say that last part...but sometimes ghosts aren't very clear when they speak.

Perhaps what he is saying is, "...really start with what's there; the ingredients of your day. Work with what you've got." Thanks, E.B. I think I will. I'll start creating some thoughts around the random things that sit, parked in my camera.

I'll begin by reminding myself that I must always search for the real in the artificial. Even when the real is fooled by the artificial. The difference is, the trick is, can I tell them apart?

And, on days when things just don't want to cooperate. When it all feels like a weight on my shoulders and nothing wants to come together to amuse me or insight me or to inspire me...

Can I take a lesson from my dog to just sit in peace with what it is at the moment? Just accept it and not fight so hard against things I can't name, can't define, can't control, can't, can't, can't? It seems to be so much easier to just let it go. Stop picking at it; picking at me...

Because it will change again if I take a deep breath. Just breathe in and out till it changes again. The sun returns, the rain abates. The day becomes less stressing and things return more to what I understand and can relate to, if I stop trying to force it and accept it instead.

Which isn't to say that there aren't hard, rough, uncomfortable moments because there sure the hell are. But, the magick is, can I put on my big girl pants and work to find the rightness in the hard spots? Even more, can I find a spec of beauty in them so they aren't just hard but, at a bare minimum, add character? At least add some strength to my emotional spine?

Can I find the luscious in the prickly? Can I find the, "Ah, now I get it?!" Can I realize that even the most harsh of things have their intrinsic beauty? And, use them to remind myself that the part I focus on depends on my vision, alone. I get to decide...

As I concoct an emotional meal from these random thoughts and images, can I remember the key ingredient? The necessary salt and savor of my life-the one who makes so much possible and brings such depth of flavor to my life? Because, when I remember to put the divine spice back in my life meal...when I add this guy to my thinking...

The truth becomes so very obvious. That in everything that comes my way, EVERYTHING, it's so much more wondrous when you live it and love it and worship it and like it and want it and eat it all up because you made it from scratch. Even though you were fairly certain at the start there was nothing there worth eating. Eat up your life till there's nothing left... and then lick the plate clean!

Bon' Appe'tit!

Namaste' Till Next Time,
Holly