JUST KEEP ON COOKING
If you are anything like me you’re quite envious when watching cooking shows and see the chef’s ingredients all measured out in little jars. They are so calm and peaceful as each prepared ingredient sizzles as it hits the pan. We jump online to purchase their cookbook, as we believe our cooking experience will mirror exactly what we’ve just watched.
We arrive home one day, and there it is, resting on our front doorstep, the cookbook that is going to bring taste and calm to our kitchen.
The only thing that resembles anything from the cooking show is when we preheat the oven. It doesn’t take long before we’re running from one side of the kitchen to the other, trying to find the correct ingredients. Halfway through we seem to forget all forms of measurement. A teaspoon becomes a swig and a cup becomes a few handfuls. There is always one ingredient we forget to add and end up asking ourselves what we can substitute for that herb we forgot to grab on the way home that evening.
It is manic every time, we never really know what we’re doing, but it works out in its own little way, and we’re back in the kitchen the next night doing it all again.
It is similar to life. As much as we wish we could have all the ingredients of our life in front of us at the beginning, knowing exactly what, when and how to do it. We can’t, as life is not a cooking show.
When we decided to pack, sell or donate everything we own and housesit our way around North America, there were countless questions we didn’t know the answers to – Are we going to be able to rent out our home in Australia, will we be able to get the appropriate US visa, can we purchase a car in the US, where will we stay after the first housesit finishes in May.
It would have been great if I knew the answers to all the questions that were raised at the beginning. Hey, it would be great if I knew answers to some of the questions now.
But I realised it wasn’t a necessity to have all the answers from the beginning, that they would unfold in the future and I would gather some of them along the way.
The only answer I needed was for the question, “Do you want to do this?” and I knew that answer was an overwhelming YES. I then figured a little bit out each day.
If we wait until all the ingredients are in front of use before we start cooking, we will starve at the table of life.
It will never be the perfect time, we won’t know every possible outcome, we won’t know the answer to every question, and self-doubt will never completely disappear.
The secret is to just keep on cooking. If we step into life’s kitchen each day we will discover new ingredients and there will always be food on the table. Some days it feels like we’re fine dining and other days it is like we’re eating last week’s leftovers. Either way, we’re not hungry and our dreams and goals are fed by our decisions and actions.
Have fun in the kitchen and just keep on cooking: Live immediately.