meditation in action in kitchen

this morning as i come out of sleep i notice the mind is sort of mushy, i mean, ungrounded. a whole host of random, incoherent mental stuff. if i get sucked into any one of them it would be ugly. i know. been there. done that. i ask my inner self, should i meditate now? inner self says, go into the kitchen. so i do. this is the morning i have to pack up and go home. as soon as i walk into the kitchen i know exactly what i need to do. i have to use up whatever there is in the fridge. i hate to waste anything. so in a little bit i am making spiced milk, chai and mango lassi. there's really no room for the mind to wander when i have to watch over boiling milk and preparing chai spices and gathering what's needed for mango lassi. one moment of losing focus can really lead to the milk boiling over and...voila, kitchen remodeling opportunity. thank you, inner self. you really know when i ought to sit down to meditate and when to snap into action. indeed. do what's appropriate in the moment with one-pointed focus. that's meditation in action.

stay present, stay open and i get great mangoes

hwubby has to have a lot of mango lassi for a few days. so there i am, staring into the mangoes in a high-end grocery store and shocked. 2 for $5. at the rate it has been going we'll spend a small fortune on mangoes. but hwubby just had this three hour dental implant procedure a day prior. the poor baby is on liquid diet. i don't want to deprive him but...meanwhile i keep having this recurrent hunch. don't get it here. then the mind goes on and on. where else can you get it? you're in a new town, new neighborhood, you don't have a car. i take a couple of rounds of deep breathing and then i hear this: use less mango in lassi, you can always make sweet lassi, it doesn't have to have mango. somehow it makes sense to me. fast forward the next morning. today. we walk to a farmers market in the neighborhood. beautiful produce. peaches. blueberries. raspberries. i am totally enjoying the aroma of abundance and the lovely sunshine when we approach the last store in this vibrant marketplace. hwubby says, look. i say, what? he says, mango. indeed. fifty cents a pop. three-fifty a box of ten. now i am looking at eleven gorgeous mangoes at less than forty cents apiece. what's the lesson here? stay tight in the present moment and stay open.