For a long time now, I’ve asked my daughter to teach me to cook. More than once, she declined. Instead, she’s chosen to teach me ABOUT cooking via her favorite things in the world, books. For Christmas she gave me two books in her series of “Teaching Mama about Cooking.”

The first book The Soul of a Chef: The Journey Toward Perfection, opened my eyes to the experience of cooking free – free from my ideas, rules, pain, old experiences. I realized how bound up I am about cooking. And, I’ve been cooking. Cooking Good Food. I’m surprised.

In the past, I’ve cooked mostly to eat, not to experience the journey of cooking. From the moment of walking into the kitchen and opening a cabinet to sitting at a candlelit table across from the love of my life, it is a real journey. I can be present for that journey or I can be somewhere wandering in some imagined future moment when I’m sitting to eat.

I never really saw that choice before. Something’s happening. I’m expanding. No, I don’t mean my waistline. I am expanding into the wide open spaces of the present moment.

What works for you to help you stay present to the preciousness of life’s moments?