Measure for Measure

I really used to dislike baking. I am a self-taught cook, and baking, at first, was just not fun. Fun was slinging palmfuls of basil into pasta sauce, or serving up a satisfying bowl of chili at the end of the day, topped with golden shredded cheese.

But baking is chemistry. Teaspoons matter. Pinches and dashes matter. Precision and focus and attentiveness matter. And thankfully, as patience has come (somewhat and hard-won) with a bit of age, I have learned to bake. Now, I did not say anything about artfully iced cookies or cakes decked with sugar sculpted roses. But for a wholesome, simple loaf of whole wheat bread or a batch of lemon muffins, cinnamon rolls scenting the morning or a homey pound cake, I'm your girl.

I remember learning how to measure flour for baking. I was taught that if you dip the scoop into the flour, it is packed into the measure and you end up with too much flour in proportion to the fat and leavening and liquid in the recipe. But if you scoop the flour into your cup with a spoon, allowing air to remain incorporated in the flour, and gently scrape the measure level with the backside of a knife, you have the right amount. Your bread will rise. Your cake will be moist and not dry.

Our days are the same. Filled with too much, tight and dry as we can pack them, they become hard as doorstops, or closed hearts, or stumbling stones. There is no room to breathe, to expand, to rise, to show hospitality, to allow our agenda to be derailed by a child, by a need, by a Father. And it backfires. I really believe this. That the things we make of such days are not nourishing; they are as heavy as our over scheduled hearts.

So I am trying to fill these days with a light hand, scoop gently into them, and smooth the top. The unused flour, the undone task, the unexplored idea, the unread book, is not lost. It goes back into the bin. There are more days, more hours to come. There are pizza crusts and biscuits and breadsticks to be made for another meal. It is all good, it just doesn't all belong in the same batch.