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Showing posts with label life is life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life is life. Show all posts

Friday, June 10, 2022

Life Is Only As You Make It

 Don't think that I am trying to say that life is easy or that every problem is manageable. I'm not talking about the horribly and hugely awful things that can happen. Trust me. I have had some horrible and hugely awful things happen in my life and dealing with them has not been easy. There are times when I really relate to Mahalia and I do wonder how I got over it all.


What I'm talking about are the small hills that I can make into mountains. When it comes to that, I am practically a structural engineer. 

Yesterday, I was mad because I was craving pizza. A while back, I would have just called up Azzolina's or Casey's - even a take-and-bake from Aldi's was making me drool. 

But.

I can't just indulge my pizza (or burger or taco or Chinese or fill-in-the-fast-food blank) cravings like I used to. Because of my sarcoidosis and my age and my complaining kidneys, I have to watch the phosphates, potassium, sodium, oxalates, and blah-blah-blah... It's a wonder I am allowed to eat anything!

If you have never seen John Pinette go off about having to give up gluten, do your funny bone a favor and go check that out. John felt about giving up gluten the way I feel about giving up what I call pho-pot-so-xalates.


Unlike the late and wonderful Mr. Pinette, I can have gluten. As long as it's not in whole wheat form. I now make entire meals from toasted French bread with olive oil, garlic, and a little parmesan cheese. That's actually all I had for lunch yesterday and it was so glorious I had no need to eat dinner. If John could see me, he'd be so jealous because not one gram of my bread is low-carb, praise the Lord.

Now, this is how first-world selfish I am at times. Scrounging my fridge and pantry, I was in mid-gripe about not being able to just have a few slices of pizza when I realized how blessed my life is. My pantry was so full that I was having to move things around just to see what all was in it. And my fridge? That thing is so loaded that I can't clean it because I don't want to unpack all the goodies in there.

I had to stop and chastise myself. Then I went back into the pantry and found some of those little mini pizza crusts from the Mama Cozzi line. I had some of the meal-prepped pre-measured packs of ground beef and cheese and seasonings all ready to go. 

It took maybe 18 minutes to brown the meat and throw together a little pizza to bake up in the Foodi.

Stop.

Think about the last couple of sentences and ask just how selfish and ungrateful I can be. Let's see: 
  • I have enough food to prep meals a week at a time;
  • I have ground beef - 85% lean, no less! - when meat prices are crazy;
  • I found some pizza crusts in that overly-stocked pantry;
  • I have cheese and oil and...
  • ... a freaking appliance that does all kinds of amazing things.
Let's get even more basic and note that I have a roof over my head, a kitchen with water and electricity, and...

What was I griping about? I forgot because I was too busy counting all those blessings.

Anyway.

I ended up with a tasty little pizza that satisfied my cravings without throwing my nutrition scores out of whack.

I even had some olives for this treat


So I guess what I'm saying is that life can be as ~ fill in the blank ~ as I make it. I can be sad about what I don't have or rejoice in what I do have. I can give more of my time and attention to negative feelings or I can think about how I've gotten over so much already.

Losing loved ones didn't take keep me down. Losing my health - and my glorious figure 🤣- didn't take keep me down. Losing a husband didn't take keep me down. Losing my best friend didn't take keep me down. All these hurtful things knocked me down but just for a moment. 

Tomorrow is another day but it's not mine to claim. I can only live as if I have this moment because, well, that is all I do have. I choose at this moment to be thankful. And, now I am going to go make up another delicious bread plate.

Peace
--Free