10:30am
Hi mommy, you are right. We have to be able to “cook” life with what is offered to us by life. There is no ultimate recipe for life.
Some might say, “Hey, follow this recipe. It’s the best.” Another might shout, “No, that recipe is too sweet. Ours is more healthy.” Then there is a voice in the head that whispers, “Oh, I remember my grandmother’s recipe.”
What if your grandmother never cooked a turkey? What if your grandmother never heard of Thanksgiving? What if the recipe is too sweet and another is too salty. Perhaps the tofu turkey is not your way to go anyway?
What then, mom? What then?
Then, mom, you take what everybody else is saying and make it to your own liking. It might be that this year, it’s not what you wanted. Maybe you won’t even like what you cooked at the end.
The truth is that the guests will leave after a few hours and you will be left with the leftovers.
Of course, my transition is not a holiday or a turkey. However, it is a situation you’ve never been in before.
Regardless of if you like it or not, these are the ingredients given to you. You do have some training in life as well. So this is your challenge. This is your test. Most importantly, this is your life.
So whatever recipe you follow or don’t follow is your choice. Even if you refuse to cook the turkey, it is your choice, but there will be no dinner for family, friends, and you.
It might be that you will take a brand new approach. That is okay too as long as you are trying and not afraid of work. As long as you are experimenting and moving forward, you are on the right path.
The only thing I ask of you mom is to never stop trying. Don’t stop cooking. Don’t stop experimenting.
There’s no such thing as a perfect recipe. There’s no such thing as the ultimate way. However, there is a way to do the job right. There is a way to have a “delicious life.”
There is a way to cook with inspiration and devotion. There is poetry in cooking. Therefore, there is a G-d.
That is what you must recognize: recreate. Regardless of what recipe you follow, continue to recreate and adjust it. In the final recipe you choose to use, find poetry and then you will find G-d.
Mom, there is no right situation.
Very often what life brings us is unfair. All you can do is look around and ask what you’ve done to deserve all this.
The answer is that life is very aware that you have the potential to become an Iron Chef—that you can cook like no one else. Therefore, mom, take those ingredients left and take a good look. Look at them very carefully.
Respect them. Bless them. Learn to love them. Then, find the poetry in them.
As you do, you will initiate alchemy of inspiration: alchemy of cooking. Just remember that without poetry and love, the cooking will be dull and boring.
Remember that without poetry and love, there is no flow. So, mom, take a center place with the passion that only you possess and know and orchestrate the perfect symphony of celestial cooking.
You have the ingredients. You hear the music. Find the poetry everyday in your amazing cooking.
I love you mom and fully trust that you will find a way to bring magic out of the onion and garlic. The toughest piece of flesh when cooked with tender love and inspiration will, in the end, create an outstanding well-done turkey.
You are my mom. I am your son. You are a helper in G-d’s kitchen called life. Regardless of how angry you might be or how tired and pained you are from all this. Once more mom, face your challenge. Fire up the stove. Sharpen your knife. Embrace the challenge.
Cook, cook, and cook with what is given. Cook everyday; the poetry cannot stop until the last line is written.
The poetry cannot stop until there is a life that is yet still breathing!