Roasting and Finding Another Way

16th December 2012 Sunday

I start and end the day with a pan of vegetables roasting in the oven.

Blearey eyed this morning I toss small cubes and slices of our potatoes, parsnips, butternut squash, carrots, beetroots and red onions in olive oil and scrunches of sea salt. When they are melting soft, blackened at the edges and all stained pink by the beets I turn them in chopped corainder and coarse-ground toasted cumin seeds.  For a dressing I grate a knob of fresh ginger into a thick slick of tahini paste, thin it down with lemon juice, pack it all into an insulated bag and drive over to my Course in Miracles Group in a litte village outside Exeter. 

The shared lunch is always a treat at the end of our meeting but for me it’s the place where for a few hours I can let the constant noise in my head come to a standstill and with my dear companions untie some of the stories I make up in my mind, release the pain I put myself through and find another way to perceive it all. Which is mostly asking for help in the silence from a Higher Source than my bogged-down ego which knows nothing useful at all.....

Much later while my husband rests in bed after his long drive this afternoon I roast more roots, chop purple sprouting broccoli, put brown trout cutlets under the grill for supper and start writing Christmas cards.......wondering how I got to the week before Christmas without wrapping a single present or making a single mincepie....and not really minding at all....