Barnacles

Does a barnacle stop a rock from rocking out?  I THINK NOT.  Therefore I shouldn’t let certain barnacles of life thwart my journey.  Those parasitic and sometimes tasty morsels are just aching to be scraped!  Or you can just make the best of it, move with such speed that barnacles have no way of attaching to you.

My father is my biggest rock and even through rough financial times, he pushed through and made it all work for our family.   There are times I cook a dish, plate it, taste it, or even when I watch others eat the food that I make, it makes me wonder what it would be like if my father were there.  He would often say that I made the best dishes.  When I am proud of a dish I envision him smiling and nodding his head, his head with the dark black mop, the kind tired eyes, and the near perfectly straight yet coffee stained teeth that shined when he smiled.

I grew up in a Donut shop, my father was a baker and I spent many days and nights with him frosting various round and oblong sweet objects.  The smell of vegetable shortening combined with sweet dough lingers in the air.  He worked hard, damn hard.

There’s nothing better or worst in life than to see qualities of others.  But the many lovely qualities that I adore in people I find when I can feed them and watch them enjoying something that I put my whole heart into.   My father and my mother taught me this.  I love food, but rather than just talk about it (which sometimes I find hard to do) I would rather cook it.