Potatoes Anyone?

A fellow volunteer was ranting about the management system in her place of assignment and I was raving about open communication with my own.

Wittingly, I replied in my lousy attempt to be funny. Not only trying to lift her spirits up but most importantly to sashay in my own meandering state of mind regarding my placement.

Over the weekend, I have tried not to think about the email exchanges from work and how it has affected my thinking about my job descriptions and objectives.

I focused on the only vegetable available for me in the fridge that I share with my roomie, potatoes.

As Kung Fu Panda tried to fight his battle to be the Dragon Warrior and thought about the object of the battle as a dumpling, I attempted to do as he did.

Instead of thinking about my frustrations and my gaps as a volunteer and how I cannot change the world, I thought of how to cook my potatoes in different ways.

I am still at it, thinking of ways to make the potatoes shine over the other vegetables.

I even asked another volunteer friend for some potato recipes knowing that it is their staple food from back home, and I also knew that she was probably bored to tears at the very moment I thought about my potato questions.

In my mind, what have I got to lose? If she did not reply immediately she probably thought I was nuts and bored to tears myself. But she did reply! and I have received at least 5 recipes from her. It must have got her thinking.

With this in mind, I emailed back to the ranting volunteer friend telling her that she might as well think of a thousand and one ways to make tomato dishes instead of thinking about management systems in her workplace. I also shared my first attempt at making a potato meal for lunch.

She replied back by sharing her favorite recipe of squash soup, this time cheerfully.

A sheer brilliance for an idea struck me. Maybe we can create an e-group of sharing 30 minute meal recipes and type away for a minute or two of our recipes whenever we feel like ranting and raving about the seemingly endless frustrations with work, life and love.

It will not only help another volunteer cope with dealing with available vegetables in his or her place of assignment, but it will also take the load of negative energies off the shoulders of the one sharing the recipe.

Like a 2-minute break from the usual, to type a 30-minute meal to deviate one's attention on something that is taking another year off of one's actual age.

One can also do the old fashioned breathing exercise but that seems boring and usually it does not help much.

Who knows, maybe at the end of my placement, I have written a thousand and one ways to cook potatoes for a meal.

Happy eating!