***Disclaimer: This post comes with no recipe attached***Let me tell you a story!
First, picture the scene:
It's the year 2009. The news of a worldwide economical disaster are all over the media. People reach for their credit cards and sigh, that sigh you know...
The one that reveals that innermost feeling of fear and yet a kind of hope .
Will they ever be able to use that shiny card again?
It was like a key to a world of magic where all dreams may come true. But no longer, there is unemployment and recession.
Tears and fears-Wasnt that a pop band???- But I digress!
Credit cards are frozen-literally-in the ice box, until hope returns.
Well, in a little-ok- medium size town- in the North East of England, there lives a young maiden.
Ok, not young! A maiden still on this side of 35 but, nevertheless a Maiden. That is to say, she is the proud single parent to a beautiful 6 year old boy.
He is her life. She struggles in this economical crisis to provide him with some of the latest toys but above all, healthy meals.
She works 9-5.
Ok so, not 9 to 5 but 8.30 to 4.30, teaching to the best of her abilities in order to provide her beautiful boy with the best possible life in these dark, gloomy years.
Then, one day, it all gets too much and she falls ill.
She is lost in a world that asks so much from her and gives her so little in return.How's this for a drama queen??
Yea, Ive been going through a hard time... We know, we've heard it all before...
Alas, the maiden suffers a trauma and falls ill. She is unable to fulfil her maidenly professional duties.
Shall we call her R, by the way? lol
Anyway...R, unaccustomed to not working, finds herself driven to post about her passion for cooking but most of all, she finds herself strolling through endless bookshops, looking for books that will somehow fill the hole and pain in her soul.
On one of these occasions, R feels drawn to a charity shop.
Aside-Charity shops in the UK are shops that sell second hand goods that have been donated by people. The profits from the sale go to the charity in question.
So, R driven by all the pain in her present life-we wont go into the whys and hows- walks into this charity shop looking for a book.
And so she finds a good one. Mind numbing fiction.
She walks over to the counter to pay for it- all 75 pence of it- when something shiny and blue catches the corner of her eye.
She glances briefly...
No, it cant be!
She kneels down and touches it...It is!
There they are in all their glory!Three LeCreuset pots,marked £2, £5 and £5.
She cant believe it. She never thought she would find such a thing. Her dream!
Her dream had been so simple...to own at least one cast iron pan one day! But they were so expensive!
And there, in front of her, all three of them for a mere £12.
She examines them carefully. Testing for the weight and the stamp, the hallmark that will reassure her its the real thing.
Quietly, she looks back at the lady, oblivious to R's amazing discovery and still awaiting her most crucial £0.75.'I'll take all 3!' ,R says, hoping the lady won't notice the tone of excitement in her voice.
She doesnt. All she says is that they are so heavy, 'a plastic bag couldnt possibly hold them'. But R doesnt mind. She will carry them on her back, in her rucksack.
Back home, R cant barely contain her excitement! She scrolls the net for prices and when she realises she has saved almost £200, she squeals with excitement.
'Maybe someone Is looking out for me' she thinks
She walks into the kitchen, placing her beloved Cast iron set on her minuscule stove and stares in admiration and gratitude.
She turns and sees her herbs. A surge of hope fills her heart.'You deserve better too!'
And without a single thought she takes herself into her terraced house garden to build a box worthy of her herbs.
As she plants each one of them, she thinks to herself:
'After all, when everything is falling apart, in a world that is so full of fear for the future, it is the Now! In the simple things, the simple gifts of life, that you realise you are never truly alone! Someone out there is looking out for me! Just as I am now...for you'
THE ENDThanking you for taking your time to read this looong post, that is a gift in itself!
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