 I like fried eggs, the look of the yellow yolk so clearly defined in the middle of the white and edged with a slightly crisp edge. I like scrambled eggs, the soft almost custardy texture of the eggs. I dislike eggs that are scrambled-fried. How do we get scrambled-fried? By not being able to maintain the integrity of the fried egg and not prepping for a scrambled egg.
As I pondered my breakfast I wondered why a scrambled-fried egg bothered me so much. Surely it was edible. It was composed of two nutritious eggs that had been cooked. So what if the original goal of seeing them fried had been abandoned as they began to stick to the pan and break up. So what if I had decided to just scramble them mid cooking, after seeing that they could not be salvaged as perfectly cooked fried eggs. Yet I still looked at them with disappointment, trying to decide whether to discard them or eat them. Looking at them represented to me a failure. They were not what I had originally envisioned when I started this project. It had gone wrong, and my attempt to salvage had produced a product that was not palatable to my eye, as my eye was still aligned with my mind and seeing what it should have looked like. The thought of discarding the egg, a wasteful and foolish thought, still had appeal because of the depth of my disappointment, and the greatness of my desire to have what I originally envisioned. I put my creation between two slices of warm buttered toast and took a bite. To my surprise, it tasted like fried eggs. That distinct fried flavor I had been craving; the look of it hidden between the slices of bread. So glad I didn’t discard it. I wonder how many things are discarded because we just get disappointed that it didn’t turn out exactly as we envisioned. I learned the value of recognizing that at its core there is value in many things that are disappointing, it’s all about using what you have to make what you feel is lacking more appealing and palatable. This year, if there are some things that for you represent failure and disappointment, before giving up on them (children, marriage, career) speak to someone who can help you perhaps find a way to recognize what core value may still remain. It would be a shame to discard something that with a little work could be salvaged.
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AuthorAllison Bonilla LCSW Archives
January 2020
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