The other day my landlady knocked on my back door to deliver a brown paper package (yes, tied up in string!) full of handmade corn tortillas from a favorite tacqueria up in Sonoma County. The tortillas had been wrapped up while they were hot off the griddle and the package still had a little warmth left in it even though it had sat for over an hour in the car back to our home in Oakland. It rested in my hands with a weight that felt very reassuring, as if the tortillas were still somehow connected to the corn in the fields and the warm hands of their maker. Good solid basic food. My favorite kind, and a strong reminder that there is almost always enough.
Enough of what, you may ask. Well, enough tortillas to inspire thoughts of dishes as rich and involved and deep as a mole, or as simple as a taco stuffed with grilled fish, cabbage, and chili-spike crema. Enough to eat a few on my own right then and there, slathered with avocado, lime and salt and enough to stash a few in the freezer for later and enough to offer a few to a friend who stopped by to say hello.
Because they were a gift, the tortillas were enough to make me feel connected to the people I live with and reminded that I'm very lucky to have a landlady who delivers fresh, still warm tortillas to my back door. Enough to consider the story of the tortillas all the way back to their maker in a Sonoma tacqueria, all the way back to the corn fields, and back even further into history and tradition.
And finally, the dead simple fact that there is, for today at least, enough to eat and enough extra energy to dream up such romantic thoughts about something as simple as a pile of corn tortillas. Enough to help me to laugh at myself and call up some friends to invite them to dinner and enough to then pour myself a beer and head into the kitchen to get cracking on that mole.
It's very important to notice when there's enough. We often have a habit of scarcity, even in times of incredible abundance and wealth. We forget that there's often enough, more than enough, to meet our needs, and to be happy, and to find appreciation, and to give some away. May this be so for you today and every day.
Related: Weekend Meditation: Enough
(Images: Dana Velden)
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Thank you for reminding us of abundance. I enjoy your thoughtful entries.
It is so funny you wrote about "enough" this week. I was talking to a friend yesterday about just this, but from a different side. I was saying that even in my deepest bit of poverty, I was well taken care of by friends, neighbors, etc. I may have had to couch surf, but I always had plenty of food, clothes, a place out of the rain, and how that is MORE than most people have around the world, or even just in the US. How my ideas of "enough" are shaped by this, and how I might want to adjust my ideas slightly.
Thank you for this post. Thank you for all of your posts. I always feel inspired and nourished by them.
Thank you for this. My husband and I are trying to figure out if we can afford a kitchen remodel this spring/summer and with all our worries over expenses and wants vs needs I need reminding how good we already have it - a roof over our heads, family and friends that love us and each other!
this made me feel warm inside!!
Thank you.
Beautiful, as always. Thank you.
Thank you. This puts so much into perspective.
Such a warm post :)
This piece... such nurturing, warm, thoughful, soul filling reading...thank you, so very much!
thank you
I just wanted you to know that this really resonated with me and with several of my friends (I shared it on FB). If you stop for a minute and appreciate all that you have instead of dwelling on all the things you need and want, it makes so much stress slip away. Writing this article was the equivalent of sharing a batch of warm tortillas with me. Thank you. :)
What a lovely post! Those tortillas look amazing. Would you mind sharing what taqueria they came from?
@eureka: El Molino Central in Boyes Hot Springs!