A Year of Expansion

I hope no one is thinking of expansion in terms of weight gain! No, my year of expansion has to do with personal growth, not growth of a waistline. My friend Kathy sent me a blog entry about foregoing New Year's resolutions and instead choosing a word to live your year by. You can choose any word but some examples are Love, Joy, Action, Discipline, Release, Adventure. I loved the idea, but there are so many great words! As much as I can over analyze, I didn't - somehow the word expansion struck a chord with me and honestly I didn't give it much more thought. Even though I love trying new things and getting out of my comfort zone - well I'm not going to jump out of a plane, but I have gotten over my fear of public speaking and am currently taking an art class which I never thought I'd ever do - there are plenty of areas in my life I can work on personal growth. My word is expansion, but it also means I'll live the year by not contracting, or shrinking away from challenges. I will grow this year by not feeling fear, or at least facing fears, as new opportunities present themselves. 

In addition to starting my art class this last Monday, I also took a cooking class last week. My cooking skills are decent, but not expert by any means. The more I learn from experimenting, watching on-line videos and taking cooking classes, the more fun I have in the kitchen. And the more time I want to spend creating nourishing foods for my family. There are so many people today, having taken advantage of the abundance of convenience foods and restaurants in today's world, that have very little, or no cooking skills. It is sad to think the next generation will probably be even more kitchen illiterate. If you are not confident in the kitchen I'd encourage you to expand your horizons and take a cooking class, or invest time watching cooking videos on-line. If you are one to follow recipes and have a fear of trying any kind of variations - let it go! Either way, step out of your comfort zone. Adapt your recipe by putting in leeks instead of onions, balsamic vinegar instead of apple cider, or adding various items the recipe doesn't call for. If the dish doesn't turn out so well, it isn't a failure - you've learned something new - you've expanded your knowledge of flavors! Or if you barely cook at all due to lack of knowledge or even desire, challenge yourself to a week of cooking at home to see what you can create. I know you will make some delicious meals, gain some skills and spark an interest to learning more so you can provide healthy meals for your family. (If not you can hire me to work with you one-on-one in your kitchen to learn the skills you need).   

During my art class, I realized how much cooking is like painting. Whether you are creating a painting or a meal we need to be able to let go of our fears and enjoy the process, the journey. When we let go of our fears our true nature reveals itself and our creation is unique to our being.

Our first lesson in art class was learning to mix colors. If we didn't know how to mix the colors, our painting would look like a paint by numbers piece. With cooking we can follow recipes and we'd have a meal, just as the artist "painting by numbers" would have a painting, but where is the creativity, where is the soul of the artist or the chef? Ironically, my friend Lara signed up for the same art class. There we were the first day, with our type A (should I just say controlling?) personalities, having similar fears as we embarked on our first lesson of creating any color from six paint tubes. We had to let go of our need for perfection, and experiment, not worrying about the outcome, but embracing the moment of blending the colors and watching a new color emerge, be it an eggplant purple or a muddy brown. Amazingly just a bit of another color could bring that dark muddy color back to a glorious rich purple. It is the same with cooking. By letting go of our fears we can experiment with the flavors, seasoning and ingredients, and make a meal that is from fresh whole foods. Some mistakes may be more fatal in the kitchen, but if you add seasonings slowly it isn't often you'll make a dish you'll have throw away. And even if you did? Did you fail? No! You learned something new! So please let go of your fears, expand your horizons - get in your kitchen today and create something to nourish your family.

I know I'll have opportunities this year I may be afraid of, but knowing some of you are overcoming your challenges of cooking your families meals from real foods will inspire me to expand my horizons!