Making Soup

My son likes to make soup. Sometimes he follows a recipe. Sometimes he just uses what’s available in the fridge. And sometimes it’s purely a gift from his imagination. I can say without bias that I love them all, but the ones that first come together in his mind are the most profound treats for the senses. To create one of these unique culinary experiences he draws from everything he knows about food. He is not a chef, although many people have told him he could be. Like many of us, his knowledge of food comes from years of tasting ingredients, trying things separately, mixing them up. The ideas for his imagined soups might be spontaneous inspirations or they could take days of mental pulling and pushing until the picture seems right. He says that he can feel them, he can taste them in his mind.


And when that picture from his mind is served in bowls to the rest of us, it becomes a moment when time briefly stands still, when it’s okay to simply exist and enjoy. Soups in general can be cathartic to our moods. His soups fashioned from thin air can sometimes take my senses to another place, another age. They’re that good.


How can this happen? How can someone with no training make such a sophisticated creation, with layered tastes and complimentary textures? Some of you already know the answer because you do it almost every day. You draw upon every aspect of your experiences in order to bring into existence something new, an original picture that seems just right. Some might say, well that's what creative people do...they create. I say it's more than that. And we can all do it.


My son's exquisite soups are a product of his personal Universe. We all have our own personal Universe waiting to help us with exquisite answers. Take a minute each day to listen to yourself. Shut out the noise, close your eyes, and allow yourself to understand how you truly feel right now. It is by understanding your true feelings that you will know exactly where you are and what to ask the Universe. So take a Feelings Break. Make it a daily routine. Promise to get back to the bustle shortly, but for a few minutes it's okay to simply exist and enjoy the soup.