Weekend Meditation

Raven Nature

Dana Velden
Dana Velden
Dana Velden's first book, Finding Yourself in the Kitchen: Kitchen Meditations and Inspired Recipes from a Mindful Cook (Rodale Books) is available where ever books are sold. She lives in Oakland, CA.
published May 25, 2014
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(Image credit: Dana Velden)

When I read Sara Kate’s review of the new Cuisinart Elite food processor, I felt the familiar tug of a well-known, mischievous spirit I call my raven nature. She appears whenever a bright, shiny, new object catches my eye. Over the years I’ve learned to tame her, but not to banish her completely. Like most troublemakers, she has her place.

I still have my 1970s Robot-Coupe food processor, just like Sara Kate’s mom’s. It continues to work wonderfully after all these years and I really don’t have a good reason to replace it. Still, I was seduced when I read about the three bowls, the retractable cord and the dough setting on the shiny new model. I should get that, I thought to myself. Or more truthfully: I really need that.

But do I? In this case, no. I don’t use a food processor that much, I don’t have the space and I most definitely don’t have the spare cash. This is a case in which the raven gets carefully tucked back in her cage.

If I let my raven always have her way, I would be up to my ears in clutter and just as deeply in debt. So she’s well-tethered most of the time. But she also has a sharp, exquisite eye for uniqueness and beauty and she rarely let’s me down when I occasionally give into her.

So every now and then I say OK and fork over my money and take home a lovely treasure. After all, it was the raven who first prompted me to buy that shiny new Robot Coupe in the first place, oh so many years ago.

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I hope you enjoyed this encore Weekend Meditation, originally posted in October, 2009. I will be posting these vintage posts every Sunday (with the occasional new post, if I can manage!) for the next several months while I focus on writing my first book.