Well, I had to laugh, I got an e-mail asking how two people could eat so much food!
Indeed, I prepare so much food, and it gets eaten too quickly! That requires that I prepare more... (Oh, for goodness sake; rubbing hands together; paging through cookbooks!). But, why can't food just remain, and look pretty in the refrigerator or on my table. Instead, meals vanish. It is like dusting the house. Once that is done, I wish things would stay dusted for a year, without my having to intervene on a weekly basis.
George packs most of this food in his lunches. Sometimes he packs so much, I've wondered if he is feeding staff at work. Co-workers ask him, "What IS that you are eating? It smells heavenly!" He'll stare at Moroccan tagine, pull up a cinnamon stick, and say, "Something my wife cooked last night." He won't know what to call it.
Sometimes he'll take an entire casserole to work right after I've prepared it, three days' worth of food I could have enjoyed too! Now, I write, "Do not take" on the plastic wrap over a meal - I'd like to eat also.
Some mornings he'll grab things in a hurry for breakfast and eat them cold, on the way to work. Like salmon. Who wants to hold cold, left-over salmon while negotiating traffic?
Yesterday he was just about to do this, and I insisted that if he wanted the salmon he should put it under the broiler for a couple of minutes, with lemon juice, finely chopped parsley, paprika and pepper. I got busy chopping, rolling up the sleeves of my bathrobe. Then I showed him how to grill Greek pita, how to season the top with a spice blend.
Of course, once the salmon was grilled and the pita was wrapped around it, he didn't move over to the table and sit down. He stood over the stove, over the hot fry pan, with all the juices sliding out of his meal. They collected in a sizzling puddle in the fry pan.
"Oh, that is going to make a good sauce. Mop it up with your bread!" Now I was completely absorbed in not letting a good thing go to waste!
As I might intervene in the kitchen to maximize outcomes, George does the same at work, with children. He teaches them how to manage emotional states. It is about caring, creating optimal outcomes, like trust, with what is at hand in the environment. Basically, he creates magic in the everyday.
This week, one of his clients held a light-stick in the dark, waved it around, then sat on the floor to build a castle. Conversation was held in the dark, while George held the light-stick. Another time, they built a fort out of empty storage boxes, and pulled butcher paper over the top. The child crawled inside and grinned. Staff came to see the fort, validating the efforts of the child. What a great moment!
I think we love the play, of creating wondrous outcomes. That yam poriyal I prepared yesterday? I got one serving, before he took the entire casserole to a meeting this morning. He said, "It's potluck."
