I have dreams of pickling, but I also want to do something with all these pickles before the end of the afternoon. We want cucumber salad!
We thinly slice them, add rice vinegar, a little sugar, and dill.
I learn that the name for the herb "dill" comes from a Norse word meaning to soothe. Eating dill apparently soothes.
I like that. We need a little soothing today. (By the way, I love words that sound like their definition. Soothe sounds soothing in the same way that crackle sounds crackly. . . I digress.) I haven't used the word soothe in over a year, maybe longer.
Soothe means to gently calm.
As we eat my cucumber salad, I wonder about the word. Lately, I've notice how anxiety producing our environment can become. I wonder just how many soothing activities I invite my family into during any given day. With all my energy and talking and scheduling, am I even a soothing presence in their lives at all? It's a nice summer challenge to think about being a woman with a soothing presence.
Some things do soothe: walks in the woods, gazing at flowers, reading, long dinner conversations, leisurely baths, and drawn-out tuck-ins.
Living with flair means I learn to be a soothing--not anxiety producing--presence.
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What did your own mother do to soothe?
2 comments:
Heather. Serious question here. I am growing cucumbers too -- first time. I picked a long one yesterday to cut up and it was so bitter I couldnt eat it. When do you know they are ripe?
rupzip@ gee mail dot com
Dear David,
I have no idea! I think bitterness might be a sign it's been on the vine too long, or maybe just the opposite! I pick mine when they are about one foot long. Hope this helps!!
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