Cooking in my own kitchen!

Nothing like cooking in your own kitchen!

In my opinion I have cooked the nicest meals in my own kitchen! I know where to find everything. I know the sizes of the pots that I have and which goes on which plate on the stove for optimal distribution of the heat. I know the heat settings on my stove and how much of it I need to prepare whatever is in the pot or pan. I know the utensils to my disposal for the ideas that are in my head and I (99 % of the time) achieve the desired outcome!

So why is this important – as the smell of pumpkin and fish lures me to the kitchen – I love vegetables and fish...

I have more recently had the opportunity to step into some other people’s kitchens. I don’t know if it has anything to do with having turned 30 a couple of years ago, or whether it had anything to do with whose kitchens it was, but I found myself having the strangest overdose of courage to just plunge in and try.

For the first time ever I had the courage to go for it regardless of my own (sometimes unreasonable) demand for perfection. Granted, not everything came out as it was supposed to, but some came out really nice and I couldn’t help but feel chuffed with myself.

The thing that just AMAZED me – I mean BLEW ME AWAY – was the courage that I felt for trying new things.

I’ve heard some people tell me about things that happen to you when you turn 30. How you move into a phase of your life when you start caring less about what others think of you and more about who you want to be and what you think of you. Your confidence levels increase and your zest for life and having new adventures, trying new things. Some people have compared it to the maturing process of good wine – how it gets better with time. One thing that has been said a lot about turning 30 is the new found liberty – the freedom to be anything you want to be.

Looking back over my life there are many things that I desired to have and achieve before 30. At one time it was sad to realize just how many things did not work out quite the way I had planned or hoped. But as I’m progressing to accepting what did not work out, I am also slowly but surely filled with hope of what can be and what is coming in this new place in my life. Maybe I was not quite ready for the things that I desired before thirty (I am a late bloomer). But now, who knows what it can be instead and how much more I am able to embrace and enjoy it.

I mean, getting your license at 18 is pretty awesome – the newly found freedom of movement is definitely something to be celebrated, but there is nothing like being behind the steering wheel of a powerful motor when you’ve got more experience under your belt and more confidence in how to handle the exhilaration of the freedom that you hold in your hand (and that you feel vibrating under your bum)! Sometimes starting out is great, but it is only a bit further down the line that you really start to appreciate what you’ve got and what it is worth to you, and that you often have the maturity to know what to do with it in a responsible way.

Yip, it is not the pulling away that matters most (even though no one should despise the day of small beginnings). How do you go anywhere if you don’t START SOMEWHERE? But it is the thrill of the journey!!!

Life is too short – it should be lived more fully, more often!!!!!!! (Full throttle instead of in reverse.)