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Holidays, Comfort Food, and Tradition

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The world is changing, and things are moving so quickly. It is the time of year when we are looking for tradition: Thanksgiving and Christmas in some households, and for many others, their own unique religious or cultural traditions may tie into this time. Memories of times that may give us security and comfort. Often, these memories are tied to food, smells, and things that happened within the family during these seasons. I am writing this in honor of my Nonna. You know, the one family member that seemed to keep the whole family together. The woman whose cooking was just that much better than Mom's or anyone else's. Nonna just seemed to make everything taste a bit better. Even a simple salad with oil and vinegar could seem just a bit better in the hands of my grandmother (Nonna). She did have a secret way of making it better, and it was the order in which she did things. She would coat the lettuce with the oil and then put the vinegar on the salad. It seemed to keep things cri...
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The Perfect Rose Origin Story: Catch Your Own Fish

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  Have you ever asked a question, and then spent your whole life trying to find the answer—only to realize, somewhere along the way, that you forgot the question you started with? Ever since I was young, I've been fascinated by the question of what is actually true. There was an experience in my childhood that changed the trajectory of my family. My mom used to say to me, "You don't remember. You were too young. You don't remember." And just recently, I realized— I do remember. I remember a few years even before the incident happened. I remember how I actually thought we were living this Leave It to Beaver kind of life. And then something happened—or was perceived to be traumatic—and it changed the whole trajectory of our lives. And I remember tugging on my father's pant leg and saying, "Daddy, shouldn't you do this?" And his answer never made sense to me. And I think that's where something began in me. Because when I ...
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Sometimes Mom Knows Better Than Any Guru

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    The past few years have been very interesting for me. Not wonderful by any means, just interesting. Interesting because the things that have been buried beyond what I have done work on and have seen have come up to the surface. And while they have, they have given me a sense of clarity about other people’s intentions, their pain, and their reasoning behind their behaviors.   I have always been pretty good at seeing these things, but in these past few years it has just become so, so clear. I also realized the beliefs that I had that made some people’s treatment of me and their behaviors a bit more acceptable than actually perhaps they should have been. I liken it to a story someone said to me years ago when I was working in an environment that over time continued to shift and become more dysfunctional.  My friend said,  “How do you cook a frog?”   I said, “Huh?”   They said, “How do you cook a live frog?”   I said, “I don’t ...
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