Black Beans and Rice.

We haven’t seen much of Old Faithful in awhile, so this week, as LeeLee and I submit to the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, I knew I had to pay a visit to our dear friend, good old black beans and rice!  I can’t think of a meal that’s as tasty, as quick-cooking, and as filling, and I’m always so thrilled with the result.  And heaven knows I needed a thrill today!

This has been a hard week.  A week ago today, one of our friends unexpectedly passed away, and yesterday was her funeral.  By the time dinner rolled around last night, I wasn’t really in the spirit (though we did have some pizzadillas with salad in the end), and as a result I elected to postpone a lot of what I was “supposed” to be doing yesterday because my heart just wasn’t in it.

Life’s funny, you know?  Yesterday morning on a walk around the neighborhood I was thinking of our friend and what a wonderful life she’d lived, and as I walked, it occurred to me once more that life is to be savored – not endured, not checked off task by task in a great big to-do list, but to be savored, to be enjoyed, to be relished with gusto.  Our friend Vola did that and then some – and she changed this city we live in, too, and its residents, and what a legacy that is.

So last night, when I was confronted with what I was “supposed” to be doing, all of the holiday preparations and putting-togethers and baking and shopping and doing, I realized that none of it was something I would savor last night, after a day of saying goodbye to a friend and pondering the secrets to a life well lived.  So we came home, sat in front of the Christmas tree, and just … relaxed.  Read.  Talked.  Petted the cat (much to her chagrin).   I knew full well that there would come a time soon when I would love to bake something for my colleagues, my friends, Mr. Thomas the bus driver.  But last night was not that night, and there was just no sense in forcing us to do something we didn’t want to do, didn’t have the heart for. 

Tonight, today, was better.  Black beans and rice – Old Faithful – got to the table with nary a hiccup.  I whipped up some butterscotch candies after dinner – partially to satisfy my sweet tooth (I’m just like my grandmother in that regard; I have to have a sweet treat after dinner!) and partially to hand out to all of the aforementioned interested parties tomorrow.  Laundry got in the washer.  And soon I will wrap gifts, and I will love it, because I always do.  I’ll savor it all – the mundane and the extraordinary alike.  Life’s full of both.