When I'm feeling bored or sad or just out of sorts, somehow if I cook or bake I feel happy again and it's like everything is okay.
I don't necessarily need to even eat the food. The process of making it is just so relaxing and makes me happy. Except the times when something goes wrong, of course. One Christmas Eve I was trying to make a pie crust for the first time (note to self: do not make something new, time consuming or stressful on Christmas Eve) and when it kept falling apart I pretty much had a nervous breakdown.
Other than *that* little incident though, usually it's kind of a Zen process for me.
I first discovered the power of baking as healing when my grandfather died. For a variety of reasons I was not able to make it to the funeral. I cried and baked and cried and baked. I had a shocking amount of Christmas cookies in my freezer that year (he died in November). I didn't eat many of them myself but the process of baking them, and even just their presence in the freezer, knowing they were there to share as gifts, gave me a sense of peace and calm. In spite of my grief and the lack of support from others who were similarly grieving, by the end of the evening I was sad but okay.
No comments:
Post a Comment