Plinky moment:
They suggest sharing the most romantic thing ever...
I've shared it before. Way back in 2007. But. I'll see if I can't make it more interesting.
When our kids were little, 24 was just a baby, I had a terrible nightmare. One of those where you wake up full of adrenaline and sorrow. The horror is still fresh and the awareness dawning that you are still in bed, and just awakening from a dream filters slowly into your consciousness leaving you weak with gratitude. One of those.
The dream had me on our town's viaduct. In reality this viaduct crosses train tracks and about eight blocks. In my dream it crossed the Missouri river. In reality, the Missouri river does flow just a few miles down the road, and several bridges cross it. In the dream the viaduct was slick. I was alone in the car with my two small children. Up ahead a train had derailed and broken through the viaduct so I slammed on the brakes to avoid the plunge into the river. Instead, silently, we sailed off the pavement and slammed into the icy water. Frantically I began to get the kids out of the car seats. Or I tried. Frigid water slowly started to fill the car as I struggled with clips. I woke as it reached the level of my children.
This was such a vivid nightmare that I wouldn't cross the river for weeks. And finally, I did, but I ran through a checklist of what to do in my mind, over and over again. And I'd hold my breath for the crossing.
One night Rob came home from work. He gave me a hug. And then he looked at me and said. " I know you hate crossing the river. So I just want you to know that I timed how long it takes to cross the bridge. It only takes 3 seconds."
Now why is this the most romantic thing in the world to me? Because in the middle of his day he thought about me. And he had listened to me when I shared my fears with him. And he knew that it still haunted me. And he cared enough to want to ease my mind.
This is one of the reasons I love this man. Call me crazy but a dozen perfect roses, candlelight and diamonds could never touch this one.
A local doctor died recently. Young. Barely in his sixties and he had just retired due to his illness.
And his death has made me pause in the ebb and flow of activities of daily living.
He didn’t have a chance to fully enjoy the fruit of his labor. Medical school, interning, residency, continuing education, endless hours in and out of the hospital, being on call. I work for doctors. I wouldn’t want to be one. People have a stereotype that their lives are just an endless golf game and lying on the beach. Nope. They do not get paid enough. But I digress...
I don’t want my life to be ebb and flow of activities. I don’t want to put my living on hold while I attend to life.
These are the things that make me feel alive. And I want to fill (and feel) my days with them.
Being. With my family biological and chosen. There is nothing that fills my soul like my relationships with my near and dear ones. Being with them energizes me and helps me to face the days and the nights and the in-betweens. A hug, a word, an inside joke. A few handfuls of people who make my life rich.
Learning. Especially from God. But learning in general, too. I want to never stop being awed and overwhelmed by the things I don’t know.
Creativity. I just get in the do mode sometimes. Creativity makes me feel alive. I don’t want to just function. I want to add beauty.
Feeling. When something touches me, I want to respond. When the sunrise takes my breath away or the tangy autumn breeze wells up a gratitude within me...I want to respond to those feelings. When love overwhelms me I want to express it. When sorrow and loss darken my days, I want to feel those, too. I don't want to live from my feelings but I don't want to bury them beneath a plastic exterior of competency.
Is there something you are missing in your day-to-day activities? Do you need to laugh, cry, grab someone and hang on for a life-infusing hug? Do it.
One of my friends made an interesting comment.
And I've been thinking about it.
We were playing a game...not sure of the name...where we teamed up and tried to think like our partner. We were given a word and we each had 30 something picture cards in our hands. Our goal was to lay down five cards that best fit that word, and our partner was to do the same.
Points are given based on the direct matches...i.e. first placed card is the best card to describe the word down to the final placed card which is the least of the top five pictures/statements that describes the word. Points were given for indirect matches, too. When I placed a picture of clowns at number four and she considered it number one we still got points.
After six or so hands when we saw how little we matched, she made her comment. "Isn't it weird? Every time I lay down my cards I just know this is the best way, the only way to lay them down. And I guess the rest of you must feel exactly the same."
Isn't that true? I tend to think of people falling into five or six major/common categories. You've got your birth order, you've got temperaments, you've got personality types. You've got generation. You've got the five blind men and the elephant.
My mom told me she read a fascinating fact. That neural pathways are different in every person's brain. Like a fingerprint, each of us has a unique processing plant within our head.
Hmmm. Like a child who points at a bird and says "aiipane!" because he knows that the speck in the sky is an airplane because someone told him so. Then the bird that flies must be one, too. But when an adult points out that this flying thing is different, it's a bird, a new neural pathway is created, and the child has more information to work with.
This makes my brain hurt. That means that all of my nature and nurture has merged into one big batch of ingredients that go into making me, me and you, you.
And that explains why human beings have such a difficult time getting along with each other.
I don't know that I can even begin to wrap my gray matter around the people like my brother who thought it hilarious to teach my children incorrect words for things. This would be the nurture that has made them all a little twisted just like me.
If you like flat breads or Indian restaurant breads you've got to try this.
We've loved Naan at restaurants and have purchased it at grocery stores to make personal pizzas. Great stuff.
Here is a recipe. It makes about 8 longish flats or 14-16 smaller disks. It is delicious. We've used it as a side for soup, as pizza crust and with grilled meat and veggies.
Naan Bread
4 Cups of flour. ( I used 1 1/2 cups spelt flour and 2 and 1/2 cups of King Arthur unbleached)
1 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp sea salt (or regular)
2 cups low or non-fat plain yogurt
(I did not sift the flour, and the recipe I used said I might need more but I didn't...other than what I kneaded on and rolled it out on). Dump flour in medium to large bowl, add salt and baking powder mix well. Then add the yogurt. Stir until it gets difficult and you are getting a big blob.
Pour out some extra flour and knead the dough approx 5 minutes. The dough changes and
gets smooth and elasticy. Then oil the bowl, drop the blob back in and let rise at least one hour.
Pour more flour out, get a rolling pin, flour it, grab a handful of dough and start rolling into disks.
Once you have it all rolled out. Heat a griddle to medium heat. Lay naan onto griddle. In 4 to 5 minutes you will see air bubbles in the uncooked side. Once it begins to make air bubbles turn on the oven broiler (high) lay on rack or pan, under broiler for approx 1-2 minutes until you see it morph into a big air bubble.
