One Simple Ingredient

Yesterday I prepared a quattro formaggio penne pasta for dinner. One person, in a group of 30, is very allergic to mustard and so I left it out. Bad move! Not a great pasta sauce.

One little ingredient missing and the flavour lacks zip! Then I beat myself up for making a lousy meal. Wait...firstly it wasn't the best sauce, but secondly, there is no reason to beat myself up because it wasn't perfect. (working on those perfectionist fears) It is a way of holding myself in contempt, to deal with shame I feel at something being "less than". This is an old "recipe" of thinking that the Spirit it working on within my soul.

I have two secret ingredients to much of my savoury food preparation - either Dijon mustard or Balsamic vinegar. For example when you make Risotto add a dash of Balsamic to your rice as it cooks and it just gives a great boost to the flavour. Whenever you make a cheese sauce add a dash of Dijon mustard and it gives body to the sauce. The quattro formaggio sauce had neither and well it was rather boring.

Just one simple ingredient can make all the difference. One simple action, one simple word can make all the difference. It can be the difference between ordinary and extraordinary. It is the difference between living in contempt and shame or learning to live in freedom.