Mindful Gathering!

Gathering herbs from my deck garden for tonight's dinner:

Center--thyme.  Top left--sage. 

Clockwise from sage--Basil, Jalapeno Pepper, Tarragon,

Rosemary, Marjoram & Oregano, and Parsley.



This evening I'm trying a recipe I found on Pinterest and posted to my "Healthy Inspirations" board. You can check it out at http://www.artsy-foodie.com/2008/07/fig-chicken-with-rosemary-and-thyme.html

Pinterest reminds me of boxes and files which years ago I filled with recipes and dream-home ideas I ripped from magazines.  Sometimes the clippings never made it to a box or file, but languished in the bottom of drawers, on pantry shelves between cookbooks, or stored away in boxes--dreams on hold, out of sight, eventually forgotten.

Why does a particular recipe call out over another? One holds a dream.  That's the one I'd tear out and bring into my life.  Same with a specific room decoration, piece of outdoor furniture, or picture of a cozy cottage by the sea.

Take an appetizer recipe for instance...sure there's the imagined taste of the prepared dish, but more, there's the thought of what an outstanding hostess I will be serving these little delicacies from a tiny round tray at the perfect gathering in my home.  The clipping of an intriguing cocktail?  A moment of sophistication shines through.  "Ten Healthy Ways to Serve Chicken?" ...tucked away with the dream of good health forever.

Then vision boards came along--visualization tools.  Arrange your dreams on a board you see every day and they will come true.  Vision boards are not exactly new.  I read recently they, "...go back into the dark ages when people took things from the Earth and drew pictures that represented what they wanted for themselves. This long history may have changed and shifted, and then encompassed into more recent theories, but the aim and design behind them has never changed." I can assure you, your dream on a vision board has a lot better chance of coming true than the one in a box in the attic.

Now we have Pinterest--gathering images from all over the world to place on "boards."  Aren't we all dreaming online now?  Further, like everything else in our society, these dreams are coming true faster and faster!

While I have a Pinterest board for recipes I'd like to try, I have a separate one, called "Healthy Inspirations."  Seems I still need that first board, dreaming of tasting chocolate cookies made with an Andes Mint placed on the top, right out of the oven--melting into a gooey chocolate and mint frosting. Or a little piece of cake called, "Death by Vanilla Cake."  Or how about my dream of biting down into a homemade Three Musketeers Bar, a 90-second Nutella Chocolate Cake, baked brown sugar chicken wings, and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter cookie dough frosting?

All of those, and more, are posted on my board titled, "Foods/Recipes I'd Like to Try."  They're not there because they represent a dream of becoming a great host, or because I think I'll be the best mother if I make them for my kids--my children have been adults themselves for many years now.  This morning I ask myself, why are these recipes on my board?  Do they still represent a primal, early childhood longing for comfort and love? 

There's a disconnect between my dream of being a completely healthy and fit 60 year-old stair climber, and my dream that must still exist of eating all the foods that took me to the opposite heights! Or rather, depths.

Writing today leads to three helpful observations/conclusions:

1)  If I continue with the same dreams I've had for so very many years, then I'll be dreaming the wrong dreams.  I'm not the person I was three years ago, five years ago, ten years ago, many years ago. Time to take the blinders off in the food department!

2)  It's confirmed--writing works for me.  This process combines subconscious thought and conscious thought which evolves into new discoveries.  This step...this very step, writing this blog today...is essential in going forward with my plans to successfully climb the Willis Tower in November.

3)  I intended to write about the "Rosemary/Thyme/Fig Chicken" recipe I'm making for dinner.  What followed leads to new steps I can take.

For starters, I'm changing the name of my Pinterest Board from "Foods/Recipes I'd Like to Try," to "Foods I Will be Able to Taste from Time to Time, Once I've Met my Health and Fitness Goals." 

Ha, a bit lengthy, but entirely necessary to make this shift.

It's time to fill up that "Healthy Inspiration" board!

Here's what I have so far:  http://pinterest.com/chspoon/healthy-inspirations/