another shelf, no luck.Finally, I found a small bag of rice on the very top shelf in the back. I poured the rice into the little pot and made a beeline to the faucet to wash it. The sink was located right next to the kitchen back door, but there was no longer a sink there! Where could the sink be? I looked and looked and then threw open the back door in dismay—there it was! There was a new addition built on the back porch and the sink was located there.
MRS. V'S 2 CENTS DIANE VENDIOLA
Fifty years ago my family and I lived in a three-bedroom house in Seattle. The other night I dreamt of this very same house. I found myself opening the door to that old home of mine, and everything in the living room was just as I had left it 50 years earlier. The only thing different was there was a casket placed near the far wall, and sitting in a chair next to it was a young man with his face in his hands weeping silently . Down the hallway leading from the living room door was the kitchen. I saw a bunch of my relatives and friends there, hurrying back and forth with food, pots, and plates. I could smell foods cooking and desserts baking. I was overjoyed to see my friends but sensed this was a serious moment, so I did not smile and greet them with hugs as they hustled and bustled about quietly preparing food for comfort and love.
I washed the rice and put the pot on to boil. The soup requires ginger, garlic, and chicken bones, so I began yet another search for these ingredients. First, I looked in the fridge to see if I might locate my chicken. No luck! I searched for a freezer in hopes of finding frozen chicken (I had to find the freezer first, of course). I finally found it in the basement with chicken inside! I hurried up the stairs to the kitchen stove to add my find to my little pot sitting on the back burner, but the little pot of rice was not there! I was beginning to get a little impatient and irritated. “Who moved my rice?” I thought to myself. I looked in the sink, and then on the table crowded with salads, breads, baked potatoes, clam chowder, and pies. No little pot with rice in it. I went back to the stove and noticed the handle of my little pot on a shelf above the stove. I put the chicken in the pot with rice and squeezed it back on the stove in between simmering stew and fish head soup. Now I started my search for the ginger and garlic. Thankfully, I noticed a bin of onions earlier. I went back to the bin and found garlic and ginger among the onions! I had been feeling confident about knowing where I could find the essential ingredients for my healing soup, but everything was not where I expected it to be. The experience of expecting to find the essentials I needed for my healing soup threw me off.
Instead, I decided I would make the weeping young man a dish that I always prepared for my kids when they were sick or sad. My husband and I called this dish “soup rice.” So, I went to the kitchen cupboard near the big oldfashioned stove where I used to keep my pots. Lo and behold there was one little pot and cover right there on the shelf! I then went to the spot where I typically stored my bag of rice, a metal container on the other side of the stove, but the rice was not there!
I decided to find a place to sit on the back porch to calm myself down and work at regaining a sense of balance. I sat down on the door step to catch my breath and gather my thoughts. Then, from around the corner came the young man whom I had seen weeping. He looked at me and walked toward me. He then stood right in front of me asked, “Would you tell me what you think?”
I would have to search for it. No problem! I knew this kitchen and the little pantry connected to it like the back of my hand. I looked into a cupboard, and a drawer, and
I think this dream may have something to do with the experience of uncertainty and sudden change as we all work to survive this pandemic. God - guide us all.
This question made me suddenly very wide awake.
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