Oden

Posted by shooperman on Jan 18, 2009 in Conscious Living | 4 comments

I hosted a Japanese oden steamboat dinner tonight. There was music, food, great company and some smack-your-forehead conversations. I live alone now and do everything on my own now. It’s puzzling. I thought I would be very bored. But I found out tonight that there are profound benefits being on your own totally. For one, I learn a lot about myself in one night than possibly a year’s worth of therapy.

I was preparing the oden cutting up the daikon, cabbage and fishcakes and I observed that I did it with meticulous accuracy. It wasn’t done up in a rush and I took the time to do one thing at a time. I was also mindful about how I wanted it to look. It was a particularly soulful time for me – I just cut, pondered and created a beautiful dinner.

When the night ended, I had to, naturally, look at the kitchen sink full of dishes. I wouldn’t let my guests do any washing, it’s not befitting a host. I have a maid coming tomorrow but then I realized I don’t like to leave the kitchen uncouth through the night. A meal is done and the kitchen shouldn’t have to sleep with the debris for the night. I don’t used to like washing, it gives me a backache. But tonight was different. There’s a cool draft blowing though the apartment and I thought, what the heck. So, I played the same Japanese jazz and started washing.

It was different. I used to want to get over with the washing even before I start. But tonight was different. I simply washed. Not because I had to, but that I wanted to. And when I did that, the washing came to an end all too soon. The kitchen was totally clean, no pans uncleaned, trash taken out, table clothes rinsed, leftovers stored. There was no stone unturned. It was good to leave a cleaned kitchen.

As I pondered about the night, I thought about a couple of friends who have been wanting to leave their folks and live on their own. Somehow, they just couldn’t convinced their parents to let go.

I’m thinking, isn’t important for parents to allow that freedom for their children to discover their own life. Even if it’s learning about how they liked their kitchens cleaned, it’s really different when you live with someone else and had to adhere to their house rules. Even if it is the same rules, it’s different if you discover that it is what you like. You have to make your own rules. You owe it to yourself to discover your own true self.