Stick Your Finger Into More Cakes in 2020! (and don't be afraid to ask;)

A few weeks ago on the way back from teaching my 6:30am yoga class, I stopped in at one of my favorite local Health Food stores.

I love how quiet it is in those early morning hours and feeling the beginning bustle of the lovely employees getting nourishing food ready for customers.

I was hoping to get a rotisserie chicken, so I asked one of the employees in the deli if they had any ready. He was a large stoic fellow, probably of Pacific Islander descent. He said they would be ready in about 10 minutes, and I decided it would be worth the wait, so I stuck around.

There was a cake sitting on the counter where we were discussing the chickens and I noticed that it was sweating profusely (as cakes often do in the Southeast). I asked him if they were throwing it out. His reply was “no, it’s for display, do you want a piece?” I was feeling particularly frisky this morning (as I often do) so I replied “no, but I do want to stick my finger in it!”

He without pause or reaction…completely deadpan, responded “okay." He pushed the cake towards me.

Now. I feel I need to explain a bit further before we continue. I haven’t eaten cake or sugar for that matter for a few decades. And honestly I never really was a big fan of it and given what I know now about what it does to the body, I just stay away from it.

I DO, however, love sticking my finger into cakes, pies, brownies…whatever. Feeling the gooey goodness and the different layers and the texture in a tactile way is very satisfying and just feels yummy (and it’s pretty annoying to the people whose desserts I might happen to stick my finger in…you can ask my sister;). I guess it’s my own way of experiencing the culinary creation.

Back to our story. If you remember, my stoic friend had just very matter of factly given my strange request of sticking my finger into this pristine (though very sweaty) cake the go ahead. I kinda couldn’t believe that he’d said yes, so my response was an incredulous “Realllllly??” “Sure.” Again…completely deadpan response to this very out of the ordinary request. So. I took a nice deep breath, poised my finger over the cake, and deliciously pressed my finger into the icing, first layer, second layer…third. Oh. So. Satisfying. Took my finger out, wiped it off, he grabbed a spatula, cut out the piece with the hole in it and dumped it in the trash, immediately turned around and picked up my (now ready) rotisserie chicken and handed it to me. I smiled and said, “Thank you, you made my day!” “No problem,” (still no smile or anything). He turned around and went on to his next task and I smiled and walked to the checkout with my chicken.

As I was sitting in my car in the parking lot, I took a few moments to savor all the FUN and sheer ABSURDITY of the whole experience. First of all, well…BEST MORNING EVER…and secondly, I fully recognized the importance of ASKING. I had the impulse to make a request that was completely off the wall. I thought he would just laugh and think I was joking. But he listened and said YES. In essence, I had a desire, asked and was open enough that Universe provided the window to receive the manifestation of that desire through my wonderful deadpan deli friend.

We all have these off-the-wall, sometimes absurd desires that we may think are impossible or that no one will understand or honor. Or perhaps not so off the wall. Maybe they just feel out of reach or like we can’t possibly create them or allow them in. Give yourself some credit. Don’t be afraid to ask (and…you’re actually always asking even if you don’t verbalize it…more on that in another post;). If it’s a “no” right now…it just means you have some more getting happy and lining up to do. My goal in the whole finger-in-cake interaction was to have fun and to play with my fellow human being. Approaching it that way, you can only win, regardless what the answer is!

What is a fun, silly, off the wall desire you have? How can you play today? What is something you are afraid to ask for? Remember that to Universe, there is no request too silly, too big or too small.

Are You Having Trouble Being Present?

I have an absolute love/frustration relationship with our yard. So much so that I realized recently that I probably think about it 10-200% of the time. I’ve never really had a yard except for when I was growing up and even then I only did the occasional mowing. I did try to grow tomatoes a few times (that did NOT work). As an adult I’ve always lived in places with small yards that were maintained by others.

And now. An acre and a half. Which I LOVE. I love all the space, I love the animals that come to visit, I love the possibilities. But when we moved in, there was basically no landscaping and a good deal of the yard was littered with strange objects (a porcelain doll’s arm was one of the weirdest) and a lot of glass and nails.

In my enthusiasm and eagerness to have a beautiful outdoor space (and my love of flowers and plants and tomatoes), I’ve become a Lowe’s orphan garden section junkie. This is the section where they put the plants that are not doing so well out to pasture. And mark them waaaaay down. It’s one of my faaaaavorite things to do to go and peruse this section and discover beautiful plants that I can bring back to life. I love studying them and the exotic names and all the varieties. Stella D’Oro. Hibiscus. Lantana. Lorapetalum. I love learning whether they like sun or shade. Whether they like lots of water or whether they like to be ignored.

Thing is, inevitably, in spring and fall we end up with 20+ plants still in pots in various places in the yard that are eagerly awaiting to be planted in the earth. Also inevitably, they sit. And they sit. And they sit. They do get watered and they get loved but man…we’re busy!! Planting them takes some time that we haven’t been able to find lately.

So I find myself guiltily thinking about all these beautiful plants and when the heck I’m going to plant them. A LOT. And for some reason I just recently realized that all these guilty ruminations are not helping them or me. I’m not enjoying them AND it’s making it more difficult for me to actually take the action. Basically, I’m NOT BEING PRESENT. Ha! I know I know. It took me awhile, but I got there.

It’s not that it’s inherently bad to think about the past or the future, but if we’re caught in one or the other perpetually, were missing out on our present. In this case…I’m not really enjoying my beautiful plants because I’m stuck in the future of when and how I’m going to plant them. And I’m missing the things that are actually around me when I’m not around the plants.

So…my decision is to change this thought pattern. I am focusing on enjoying these beauties. AND on allowing myself to BE WHERE I AM and to appreciate it all. Take it all in. Because it really is all here for us to enjoy.

Oh, and our tomatoes are THRIVING! :)