The benefits of being "teachable"

Be willing to be a beginner every single morning - Meister Eckhart

I did it! After cooking for more than four decades, I finally made the perfect pancakes. Light and fluffy...delicious! The last time I was grocery shopping, I spied a box of blueberry pancake mix distributed by an 'off brand'. I had stopped buying this brand a while ago, because every time its pancakes turned out tough. Not thinking which is becoming more of a routine occurance, I bought the box anyway; and this morning I wanted to make blueberry pancakes for my grand daughter's breakfast.

Ruth Ward (the mother of my first relationship after divorcing an insane marriage of 15 years) made the best pancakes. So light and fluffy, you had to hold them down from floating away. I got her recipe and followed her instructions "exactly" but mine ended up close to Eva Gabor's pancakes on
Green Acres. Ruth kept stressing to gently stir batter; just enough to moisten. Surely the cook didn't want to put pockets of dry flour onto the griddle...surely batter is supposed be in a liquid state to cook into a quick bread!

This morning, here I am with a second-rate pancake mix wanting to make something special for my grand daughter. I measured out the mix and water exactly and went to get my wire whip to whip the combination into a batter, when I remembered Ruth's advice. Instead I got a table fork. I gently folded the water into the mix, much like folding whipped egg whites into a batter. I only folded in the water 6 revolutions, then smashed down larger clumps of mix into the batter (2 or 3). I still had undissolved mix in the corners of my bowl and 2-3 sections of undissolved powder. The box said that this was OK, they would dissolve during baking. Viola! Light, fluffy pancakes! I GET it!

As an experienced cook, I have made more than my share of various batters. I KNOW how to whip these together! But my way (when it comes to pancake batter) lended less than stellar results. "When you do the things you've already done; you are going to get what you already got." In this area, I wanted to improve - I became "teachable". I forfeited my way of doing things and was once again delighted with the results.

Such is the same with my life. I wake up each day, "knowing" how much of the day will progress - and am usually not let down. I learned long ago when I was working as a staff nurse for a temp pool, that when I accepted an assignment for a long term care organization (most of which in my experience around central Iowa are dangerous hell-holes where we place our elderly to die) and commuted to its location dreading the assignment, my day seemed to drag on, and my expectations were typically accurate. However, when I stepped back, and experienced gratitude that I was given an assignment that morning, and knowing that Universal Intelligence was guiding me to an "assignment" - one of a Higher Order, I always experienced a serendipitous moment where I encountered the privilege of being uniquely qualified to be of service to another human being.

For me, I've found that "expectations are just premeditated resentments". When I look at the world with child-like eyes, letting go of my understanding of things from details of my past while experiencing gratitude for knowing that all life is a lesson, the most miraculous things develop. Like light and fluffy blueberry pancakes!

Yumm....where did I put that plate I just made????