Friday, June 18, 2010

Happy ingredients





I made my first trip to a local farmer's market at the northern end of Manhattan. I can't believe I've lived in this neighborhood for ten years without being aware of it. It's a welcome discovery that, on this trip, yielded fresh strawberries, eggs, delicious mushrooms, and garlic scapes. The vendor heard my plan to use the mushrooms and eggs for omelets and threw in a few squiggly garlic scapes for free. Thank you, thank you!

But what about all of this makes me happy? I want to notice more deeply what the ingredients of happy are. Exploration and discovery. Being outdoors on a beautiful day. My curiosity to look online for how to use garlic scapes. The simple enjoyment of delicious food. The visual beauty of fresh produce. The good clean feeling I get from knowing that my money is helping support local growers and a healthy environment. The sharing of a new experience with my honey. When I look underneath the surface of such a simple thing, and see that it yields so much happiness, it helps me know that there is plenty to go around if we just pay attention to it.

Let's try this exercise with the knitting. What makes me happy about knitting? The aesthetic joy of walking into a yarn shop filled with colorful and luscious yarns of different materials, and choosing from such a bounty. The soft, creature comfort of touching my chosen organic cotton yarn. The sense of adventure and discovery of looking online for some fun patterns. The self knowledge of recognizing my joy in challenging and stretching myself, learning new things, pushing myself to grow. The satisfaction of having tried something new and having it turn out lovely. The satisfaction of knowing that something I had wanted to experience but had previously assumed was too complicated (and therefore, scary) is now part of my life. I like making these little washcloths because each one gives me a chance, in quick succession, to enjoy these steps over and over again.

Maybe when we peek underneath the hood of these wonderful vehicles for happiness, we can discover its inner workings. What's inside your happiness?

Check out others' happy posts here.

9 comments:

  1. I also find great joy in getting fresh produce from the Farmer's market and eating delicious and healthy food. There is nothing like biting into a ripe peach and having the juice dribble down your chin! Yummy! So nice to hear that you can enjoy that in Manhattan too!

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  2. Hello again, sounds like your happy ingredients this week all sum up to creating a life of simple, happy moments!

    Knitting used to be my passion, I remember the therapeutic rhythm of clicking needles, will have to get them out again. Thanks for reminding me!

    Enjoy your exploring!

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  3. Oh those fruits are so vibrant! I feel the happiness. I admire anyone who can knit. I admit I adore fibers, fabrics, and such. My talents seem to revolve around paper. Fortunately there are plenty of artists who have talents in other areas and I can admire from the sidelines.

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  4. I love the fruits and story of going to the farmer's market! So delicious. What a wonderful moment.

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  5. Helen, I love your post. It is so true that when we really look at what we are doing and the feelings we are feeling we can recognize so many more happy moments. I'd love to bottle up the formula and pass it out to people because it really feels so good when you start to identify the many simple things that can make us happy. Have a wonderful weekend.

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  6. I was also introduced to scapes at a farmer's market. Delicious in an omelette. I've been thinking about growing them to have on hand for all my scape needs.

    Thank you for all the interesting reflection on why something makes you happy. It's a good exercise to think about happiness on such a fundamental level. Enjoy your knitting!

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  7. What's a scape? I shall have to google it. I have a lovely picture in my mind of you wandering around the market conjuring up delicious dishes in your mind as you view all the ingredients! Certainly sounds like a happy experience to me.

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  8. OK, back from google. Sounds delicious. A bit like wild garlic I expect. Do you get that in the US? It grows wild in the hedgerows in the UK. I was in a wood a few weeks ago where it was abundant and the smell was delightful.

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  9. Garlic scapes are the tender flower stems of the garlic plant. It's important to harvest the scapes before they straighten out as they get tough and fibrous. Farmers remove scapes because any flowers will take energy from the developing head of garlic. The taste is like mild garlic with green freshness and a hint of sweetness as they cook. Yum!

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