I am intrigued by the notion of transformation. How does something or someone change and evolve and develop? What goes into the process of transformation? What factors help or hinder transformation?
When I am baking bread in my kitchen, these are the questions that enter my mind. Bread has the amazing capacity to transform. You begin with a few simple, unassuming ingredients - flour, salt & water. Then you mix in yeast. Yeast...these tiny particles that have the magical power to alter a static lump of dough into a airy risen mass. When the dough is fully risen, heat from the oven changes that into a beautiful and delicious loaf of bread.
The first time I made my own yeast bread, I wondered if I could truly trust the process of mixing, kneading, rising, and baking. I watched the yeast ferment and bubble with awe. What a thrill it was to pull a browned, fragrant, soft loaf of bread from the oven. Even after baking many, many breads, I still love witnessing it change before my eyes.
A bread baker knows that there is a process of transformation to be trusted. The baker provides the right conditions, handles the materials with care, and helps create a way for the ingredients to thrive. The baker also knows there is a waiting that is necessary, an intentional stepping aside and watching that allows the changes to happen.
Maybe my love of bread baking is the same reason why I love being a part of other transformations around me. My role as a parent, my involvement in mentoring people in their spiritual journey, my process as an artist - those all areas where I participate in transformation. I desperately long to see the people and things around me fully become what they are meant to be. May I have the wisdom and care to trust the natural process of transformation, knowing when to engage and when to wait.
When I am baking bread in my kitchen, these are the questions that enter my mind. Bread has the amazing capacity to transform. You begin with a few simple, unassuming ingredients - flour, salt & water. Then you mix in yeast. Yeast...these tiny particles that have the magical power to alter a static lump of dough into a airy risen mass. When the dough is fully risen, heat from the oven changes that into a beautiful and delicious loaf of bread.
The first time I made my own yeast bread, I wondered if I could truly trust the process of mixing, kneading, rising, and baking. I watched the yeast ferment and bubble with awe. What a thrill it was to pull a browned, fragrant, soft loaf of bread from the oven. Even after baking many, many breads, I still love witnessing it change before my eyes.
A bread baker knows that there is a process of transformation to be trusted. The baker provides the right conditions, handles the materials with care, and helps create a way for the ingredients to thrive. The baker also knows there is a waiting that is necessary, an intentional stepping aside and watching that allows the changes to happen.
Maybe my love of bread baking is the same reason why I love being a part of other transformations around me. My role as a parent, my involvement in mentoring people in their spiritual journey, my process as an artist - those all areas where I participate in transformation. I desperately long to see the people and things around me fully become what they are meant to be. May I have the wisdom and care to trust the natural process of transformation, knowing when to engage and when to wait.
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