Soul food, words and wild horses
Sarah Ban Breathnach is in my fictitional circle of intimate friends! I like to hang out with her and Alan Cohen regularly. My battered copy of Ban Brathnach’s Simple Abundance “A daybook of Comfort and Joy” is stained, dog eared and yellowed – and that’s just the cover. I have three bookmarks in this book, and they are never on the page of the day… bookmarked for reminders, as though I may not travel down that particular page again. My mind races and my fingers itch with the flurry of words racing through my like a team of wild horses galloping down a track, all desperate to reach their destination.
As for Alan Cohen’s “A deep breath of life” his apparel is in a similar state. Less bookmarks, though loved equally as much, printed in 1996, these two books have remained constant companions for me for almost a decade and have fueled my confidence enormously!
Today’s Simple Abundance reading is titled “Cooking for comfort”. My ritual is to start my day with Sarah & Alan (well I feel like they are friends and don’t call friends by their last name unless we’ve got shared understanding about nicknames and even then, it only works for some!). Checking in with these two wise ones always involves a cup of tea at the very least, and possibly some breakfast, hence the chai stains and crumbs…..
Simple abundance, and A deep breath of life fuel my confidence…
This morning, as often happens, a pile of dishes are sitting on the sink calling me, deadlines rattle in the dark recess of my mind, while the pressure of being self employed and not knowing where my next dollar might come from shakes me inside out and upside down. However, today as I sat with Sarah and Alan, I allowed myself to absorb their messages of support and encouragement for me. “What’s your favourite soul food?” Sarah asks, and quite frankly I can’t come up with an answer. It does however remind me of an event that I spoke at recently. Invited to speak to a group of Darwin Business Professional Women (read more about that here) the topic of the night was Slow Food.
Our tables groaned with beautiful locally caught fresh seafood and laughter filled the room. I chose to stitch my pitch of “Soul food, who’s got time” into the mix and encouraged everyone to give thought to what Soul Food means to them. You see for me, it’s not about a particular comfort food that Sarah speaks so lovingly about. And I get it that “potatoes and pasta are nature’s Prozac……and carbohydrates make us feel calm and content because they literally change our brain chemistry and increase our seratonin…the natural feel good enzymes”. I agree Sarah, I really do. It’s just that food doesn’t mean to me what it means to others. Take our eldest girl for instance – she loves home made custard. She loves it hot, cold, warm, runny, solid and even the skin on top.
Munger Ashram Dec 2010. …what we do with our minds and hearts is even more important!
For me, my soul food is in my head and my heart! Crazy huh? Well, not really, and Alan’s message for me today hit a double jackpot. “What we do with our bodies is important, but what we do with our minds and hearts is even more important.” Alan relates a story of a bloke in a Hindu ashram complaining about being assigned to share a room with a smoker. Swami Muktananda gave permission for the bloke to swap rooms “…You are hurting yourself and the universe more with your anger and judgement than he is with his smoke.”
Dishes can wait! There are dreams to follow and souls to be nurtured!
In order for me to capture these words that scream through my veins with the insistent urgency of a two year old, this morning I allowed myself to walk away from the dishes soaking in water now gone cold and to ignore the dancing cobwebs dangling from the ceiling. I know that I am helping people and the planet to follow our dreams and nurture our souls and that feelings of uncertainty will pass – in fact it all will. ps: I wear my husband’s old and now repaired wedding ring as a constant reminder that this too will pass.
Sunset at Casuarina Beach Darwin, NT feeds my soul
How about you? Does soul food conjure comfort food with lashings of deliciousness? Or does it represent something else entirely? Soul food for me can be a sparkling glass of homemade jackfruit and turmeric Kombucha tea, or a walk on the beach at sunset, smelling freshly cut grass or night scented Jasmine on a balmy evening, or a massage on a Bali beach…
My whole point is, it matters less to me, and more to you to know what feeds your soul, and to THEN be sure to have double batches on hand as back up for dark days. I always have 3 bottles of special Kombucha on hand, I live 2 minutes from the beach, my husband mows the grass regularly and I even have night scented Jasmine growing! Living two hours flying time from Bali soothes my soul even if my physical body doesn’t get there as often as I would like to. Tell me, who are your “Sarah & Alan”?
Bronwyn Clee
Bronwyn Clee is a loud and proud geek who is nuts about social media, caring for community, growing stunning orchids and smashing tiles to create liveable art. Known for her pro bono work, volunteering at a community based op shop keeps her feet planted firmly on the ground, even when the spirit of writing almost knocks her over and offers her wings to fly. Find out more about Bronwyn here .
Bronwyn Clee
