My Happy Place

I love cooking. It's hard to say exactly what I love about cooking because I love everything. But it's the essence of cooking that gets me the most. The smell of fresh lime, the zing of sliced chili pepper, and the extraordinarily melancholic aroma of grated ginger - all of these, and more, have the ability to transform my world into something truly beautiful.

There are many things I love in this world - singing with others, leading people in musical worship, gathering together with God's people, dwelling on great and wonderful theological truths, walking along the coast, watching the starlings murmurate, and the garden birds gather materials for their nests, watching movies, reading books, socializing, theatre....

But cooking? Now there, right there, in the middle of that experience, when I lose myself in the chemistry of food, I am in my happy place. No stress, no difficulty, no performance worries - I am just there, in the moment. Food represents what I wish I could achieve in my music. I have a natural ability - always have - but something stops me perfecting my music. My natural ability seems to get swallowed up in so much other stuff. Maybe if I was a chef and I had to compete with others then it would be the same thing with food. Maybe not.

I wish I could just find my dream job - what I truly truly want to do - but I just don't know what it is. At the moment I'm following the theology path while teaching music to make a living. But I am not 100% convinced I'm on the right track. Maybe I should go into full time paid ministry...but there again, I'm just not convinced.

Where is my happy place when it comes to work? And do I need work to be my happy place? Not sure. But if I do... then maybe it should involve food...

A year on...

Oh dear, I'm not all that good at keeping a blog going am I?! Well where are we almost a year later? I am 5 chapters off finishing the first draft of my novel, and about 6 weeks off selling my late mother's house. Life has provided a new landscape over the last year but two things have not changed. The Lord is still on His throne, and I still love baking and cooking!

So I shall post things from time to time and perhaps others will too! Just at the moment I have Paul Hollywood's Blueberry Muffin mix sitting in my fridge waiting for the mandatory overnight chill. This time however I have added baking powder rather than bicarbonate of soda which is what I did last time by accident. Yes. Sea-flavoured muffins! Yum!

Just goes to show that there is no substitute for the real thing, and no substitute for the life that can only be found in Christ. That's all for now!

Of Rosehips and Second Blushes

We have a climbing rose on the front wall of our house. It is a beautiful pink colour and during its first blush I diligently dead-headed the spent roses and, as a consequence, had a fantastic second blush. However, clearly I missed some, and they have turned into absolutely stunning red rosehips. So I won't be deadheading my second blush so that by Christmas the front of the house will be covered in festive buds. Pruning achieves some things as we know - usually greater fruit in the long run. But sometimes things need to lie fallow and mature so that a different kind of fruit can form.
How true this is for us. Our loving heavenly Father disciplines us as His children and often this involves painful pruning, so that He may bear greater fruit through us. But sometimes He calls us to take time out, to stop striving, and to cease our anxiety, and just lie fallow for a time. What He brings forth out of that time who can tell? It will be different to what has gone before. The fruit will look strange at first, and feel as though it doesn't quite fit, and yet over time, it will prove to be the making of us... Let us abide in Him and give ourselves to our perfect Gardener to tend as He sees fit.

Of Baking Bread and Letting it Rise

I was up early this morning and by 10am had baked some very yummy bread with enough sponge to impress even Paul Hollywood. Being a firm follower of Jamie, I had always applied a generous layer of flour or even sometimes semolina flour, to the top of my rising bread but today I followed Mr Hollywood's advice and kneaded with oil. It worked a treat!
But you know I was also thinking about John 13 and how the Lord Jesus didn't cling on to anything that was His, but gave it all up in order to serve. Knowing that a servant isn't above her teacher or a messenger above the one who sent her, I was challenged this morning about what I am willing or not willing to give up, especially as I've been given it all anyway.
What has this to do with baking bread I hear you say. Well, there are many important ingredients in yummy bread and they all have to be thrown in together and then offered up to rise... Ok, a tenuous connection but the oil makes me think of that lovely line, "Pouring out the oil of love as my worship to You," in I Will Offer Up My Life. There is something about mixing and kneading and watching and waiting for it to rise and then that moment of joy when you take it out of the oven... It just reminds me of sacrifice and service. And just how worth while it all is in the end.