Missing Ingredient

I made home-made muffins yesterday…banana nut.  I make sure and wait until the bananas are so brown and goey that they look like a kid’s science project.  I had the flour, the orange juice and the nuts.  I was thinking about stuff…life stuff, as I made the muffins.  “Need to do this”, “don’t feel like doing that”, kind of stuff.  Glad I get to make muffins, though.  When I went to the stove to take them out I thought, these look different.  Very different.

Then I remembered what I forgot…baking soda.  Muffins without Baking Soda are just not the same as muffins with baking soda.  A bit distracted, I was, while making the muffins. When I looked at the pancake flat muffin balls I thought…hmmm baking soda…one ingredient yet so much ‘lift.’

What have I been forgetting? Gratitude.  Life can get a little flat and dense without the magical ingredient of heartfelt gratitude.  Caught in the minutia, the lift disappears for a while…until something like twelve muffin balls with nuts face me on my kitchen counter and I remember the missing ingredient that brings light-ness.

They tasted okay for that morning, for me.  Good enough for a morning write with a cup of coffee for me, but not good enough to give to my neighbors and co-workers.  But definitely good enough for the crows.  Infact, it will make for a festive crow banana muffin ball crumbles banquet. 

The crows did indeed devour the crumbles in short order.  And one of them, left me a little gift of gratitude.  They do that sometimes.  I recognized and accepted it …with a nod and a smile.

Written December, 2018…amazingly still relevant 7/17/2019! And on and on.