What a wonderful *well rounded* essay to read first thing! A friend of mine once said that little babies always have the heels of a cherry tomato - a poetic observation and this is too!
I will not disgust you with the bulbous maggots that cling to our compost bin, instead, I will share the biggest, roundest thing in my kitchen - the old wash basin I use for a salad bowl. I'll be taking it out tonight, it's my son's birthday and we'll need salad for 20 people. 20 is a lovely big rounded number!
Ahhh, the challenging larval phase of so many "well intentioned" critters...! 😬 That old wash basin, though, sounds downright sumptuous. I hope you'll post pictures in a post someday.
Such a lovely, poetic meditation, perfect for the waning days of summer. So many round things in the kitchen right now: tomatoes and onions from our garden, peaches, each tiny sphere that makes up a blackberry, radishes, cantaloupe, canning jar lids (for the tomato sauce we're making). I think I've been eating my way through August. Not a bad way to live. Thanks for helping me see my kitchen and garden more deeply.
You and I have kindred kitchen spirits, Rita, and I love your roundup of summer produce. I'm eying this weekend or next for sauce-making, although ours gets frozen, not canned. Glad to know we spent some time together, in our own way, this morning.
Love this Elizabeth! It always surprises me when I read something on Substack which aligns with something that I've seen or thought of recently. And your essay had me laughing out loud! Especially when I read the questions at the end! "What's the roundest thing in your kitchen...? Yesterday while I was tidying up the kitchen, I looked up at the light above the sink and gave it a wipe down. My immediate thought was how much I loved the roundness of the striped, milky glass! And then how sad I'd be to break it...would I find another just like it?! Crazy, right?!
So you see how 'à-propos' your essay is for me today!
Thank you Elizabeth! I don't think that I would have mentioned my reflection about my kitchen light to anyone!!
Synchronicity always makes me smile, too, Jeannine, and some weeks it happens with an almost uncanny frequency. What a pleasure to give you an opportunity to bring that special moment into the light! 💡 I'm glad you shared it here.
Check and check! Both sound delicious. What's your favorite B & J's? I adore Coffee, Coffee, Buzz, Buzz -- but I don't dare eat it at night! Also, my husband loves to say that if it weren't for me, he'd still think a pint of ice cream was a single serving container. 😅
Thanks for enjoying this alongside me today, Melody. I appreciate the comment.
Hmmm, I’ll have to look into this Coffee,Coffee, Buzz Buzz flavor ! I haven’t heard of it before . I like Chunky Monkey ( bold statement from someone who doesn’t like bananas ) , and plain old Vanilla because you can do so much with it.
I believe I need to expand my B& J ‘s , even at the risk of losing sleep , gaining weight , or brain freeze :)
Love reading words that evoke textures and shape. This was a joy. And I have to share! One of the lines in my memoir reads, “Born a circle, we live ourselves into lines and then relinquish them back into a circle.”
Gah, Kimberly -- there is something very special to me about this connection, even as I realize it is a thought that must have formed, consciously or otherwise, in so many human minds.
A round wooden bowl of oranges, each a glorious round itself that falls (or is persuaded) apart into segments that still remember their roundness.
I love this meditation on "round," Elizabeth. I've been having fleeting meditations myself lately of the number line and its infinity and all the infinities between each two points on the line the the Macro and Micro of our universe and ... it's a wonderful truthful rest to come back around to circles. 🟡💛
Gosh, Elizabeth,"...segments that still remember their roundness" might be the perfect way to describe most of us humans. Thank you for that and for spending a few restful moments sharing these thoughts with me today.
Life is a circle, isn't it. Round and round and round...
And in my kitchen, the circle today is a chocolate ricotta cake baked in a deep, round tin. I iced the cake and turned it slowly in a circle to smooth the icing all around the sides.
I can almost taste it, Prue, and I can definitely picture it. Do you have one of those "fancy" cake-spinning platforms like I see the influencer pastry people use? A Lazy Susan for cakes. Thank you for bringing sweetness into the world and for being here.
No Lazy Susan. My kitchen's tiny and very old-fashioned - no microwave, no kitchenaid, airfryer and all that big newfangled stuff. Just me and a small electric handbeater, bowls and old fashioned scales. I love the unsophisticated nature of it all. It kind of keeps one humble?
Ah, "roundness is comforting". Indeed it is, and I especially feel it when the roundness of serendipity lets us make connection. As for your round harvest, I can smell the earth on the potatoes, and taste the tomatoes!
Thank you, Karen. I love those kinds of serendipitous connections, too, and believe they are more numerous than we realize. I'm sure you've had your share of garden-grown food this summer. When the season shifts, I never miss the heat, or the extra effort required to keep a garden alive, but I do long for the freshness of the foods.
Yes, Marisol! Thank you. That last suggested "exercise" was very much influenced by the enso practice. Did you come across the story of the guy who kicked a rock until it became a sphere (Journey of Christosphere)? It was a marketing gimmick that worked better than expected but, as is true of most viral ideas, was truly captivating. So many rough corners.
Mmm....nectarines are fabulous. We've had fewer local fruits than usual this year, on account of a very late and devastating freeze. Thankfully, I did get at least a few delicious peaches, and now apple season is coming.
"Living is all lines and angles, beings on their paths from birth to death. Life, though, is a circle, a perpetual recycling of energy into energy, of necessary reciprocity."
This is a beautiful post, Elizabeth. There are some gorgeous lines and passages in it, like this one: "A dot is a fixed point; a line moves forward or backward, up or down; an angle is a line that changes its mind; a circle goes somewhere and comes back again. Exist, travel, turn, return. Living is all lines and angles, beings on their paths from birth to death. Life, though, is a circle, a perpetual recycling of energy into energy, of necessary reciprocity. How heartening to remember to see the geometry of being as soft and cyclical, like seasons, like days."
My planned post last week was on wheels - and then delayed. It was wonderful to see your post on circles and the circularity of things... soft and cyclical.
Thank you, Amy. It always make me happy when I find myself in sync with people I read and respect. Even though I know some might say it's just coincidence, I like the feeling of connection it brings. Your post brought in a whole other aspect to circularity, and one worth considering: Do all our wheels serve us?
What a wonderful *well rounded* essay to read first thing! A friend of mine once said that little babies always have the heels of a cherry tomato - a poetic observation and this is too!
I love that, Sue, and will very likely take it up myself. So much better than my friend's observation that babies have "fish feet." 😅
Thanks for letting me know this offered a good start to your day.
I will not disgust you with the bulbous maggots that cling to our compost bin, instead, I will share the biggest, roundest thing in my kitchen - the old wash basin I use for a salad bowl. I'll be taking it out tonight, it's my son's birthday and we'll need salad for 20 people. 20 is a lovely big rounded number!
Ahhh, the challenging larval phase of so many "well intentioned" critters...! 😬 That old wash basin, though, sounds downright sumptuous. I hope you'll post pictures in a post someday.
Happy birthday to your son, Lindsay!
Gorgeous and hopeful, Elizabeth. Like a settling into a big, cushiony, comfy chair.
Thank you, Gayle. That's just what I was feeling, and I'm glad you felt it, too. We don't get many soft landings right now. Take care!
Such a lovely, poetic meditation, perfect for the waning days of summer. So many round things in the kitchen right now: tomatoes and onions from our garden, peaches, each tiny sphere that makes up a blackberry, radishes, cantaloupe, canning jar lids (for the tomato sauce we're making). I think I've been eating my way through August. Not a bad way to live. Thanks for helping me see my kitchen and garden more deeply.
You and I have kindred kitchen spirits, Rita, and I love your roundup of summer produce. I'm eying this weekend or next for sauce-making, although ours gets frozen, not canned. Glad to know we spent some time together, in our own way, this morning.
Love this Elizabeth! It always surprises me when I read something on Substack which aligns with something that I've seen or thought of recently. And your essay had me laughing out loud! Especially when I read the questions at the end! "What's the roundest thing in your kitchen...? Yesterday while I was tidying up the kitchen, I looked up at the light above the sink and gave it a wipe down. My immediate thought was how much I loved the roundness of the striped, milky glass! And then how sad I'd be to break it...would I find another just like it?! Crazy, right?!
So you see how 'à-propos' your essay is for me today!
Thank you Elizabeth! I don't think that I would have mentioned my reflection about my kitchen light to anyone!!
Synchronicity always makes me smile, too, Jeannine, and some weeks it happens with an almost uncanny frequency. What a pleasure to give you an opportunity to bring that special moment into the light! 💡 I'm glad you shared it here.
Does half of a round cake count ?!
Or the lid from the just emptied pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream , still sitting in front of me as I finish the last little , chilly spoonful ?
I think I love rounds and circles , ( especially when they’re desserts)
Happy summer meditations !
Check and check! Both sound delicious. What's your favorite B & J's? I adore Coffee, Coffee, Buzz, Buzz -- but I don't dare eat it at night! Also, my husband loves to say that if it weren't for me, he'd still think a pint of ice cream was a single serving container. 😅
Thanks for enjoying this alongside me today, Melody. I appreciate the comment.
Hmmm, I’ll have to look into this Coffee,Coffee, Buzz Buzz flavor ! I haven’t heard of it before . I like Chunky Monkey ( bold statement from someone who doesn’t like bananas ) , and plain old Vanilla because you can do so much with it.
I believe I need to expand my B& J ‘s , even at the risk of losing sleep , gaining weight , or brain freeze :)
Love reading words that evoke textures and shape. This was a joy. And I have to share! One of the lines in my memoir reads, “Born a circle, we live ourselves into lines and then relinquish them back into a circle.”
Gah, Kimberly -- there is something very special to me about this connection, even as I realize it is a thought that must have formed, consciously or otherwise, in so many human minds.
I'm so glad to know you found joy here today.
A round wooden bowl of oranges, each a glorious round itself that falls (or is persuaded) apart into segments that still remember their roundness.
I love this meditation on "round," Elizabeth. I've been having fleeting meditations myself lately of the number line and its infinity and all the infinities between each two points on the line the the Macro and Micro of our universe and ... it's a wonderful truthful rest to come back around to circles. 🟡💛
Gosh, Elizabeth,"...segments that still remember their roundness" might be the perfect way to describe most of us humans. Thank you for that and for spending a few restful moments sharing these thoughts with me today.
A lovely essay.
Life is a circle, isn't it. Round and round and round...
And in my kitchen, the circle today is a chocolate ricotta cake baked in a deep, round tin. I iced the cake and turned it slowly in a circle to smooth the icing all around the sides.
I can almost taste it, Prue, and I can definitely picture it. Do you have one of those "fancy" cake-spinning platforms like I see the influencer pastry people use? A Lazy Susan for cakes. Thank you for bringing sweetness into the world and for being here.
No Lazy Susan. My kitchen's tiny and very old-fashioned - no microwave, no kitchenaid, airfryer and all that big newfangled stuff. Just me and a small electric handbeater, bowls and old fashioned scales. I love the unsophisticated nature of it all. It kind of keeps one humble?
Ah, "roundness is comforting". Indeed it is, and I especially feel it when the roundness of serendipity lets us make connection. As for your round harvest, I can smell the earth on the potatoes, and taste the tomatoes!
Thank you, Karen. I love those kinds of serendipitous connections, too, and believe they are more numerous than we realize. I'm sure you've had your share of garden-grown food this summer. When the season shifts, I never miss the heat, or the extra effort required to keep a garden alive, but I do long for the freshness of the foods.
Orbs~roundness~circles~
ensō~mandalas~cycles…
Rounding rough corners?
Yes, Marisol! Thank you. That last suggested "exercise" was very much influenced by the enso practice. Did you come across the story of the guy who kicked a rock until it became a sphere (Journey of Christosphere)? It was a marketing gimmick that worked better than expected but, as is true of most viral ideas, was truly captivating. So many rough corners.
DK about kicker Christophere, but "so many rough corners" indeed!
The roundest thing in my kitchen are the plump, juicy nectarines snuggled into a wooden (is wooden even a word?!) bowl on my counter.
Well done on this essay Elizabeth, drawing us closer to our everyday surroundings and calling us to pay attention.
Mmm....nectarines are fabulous. We've had fewer local fruits than usual this year, on account of a very late and devastating freeze. Thankfully, I did get at least a few delicious peaches, and now apple season is coming.
Thank you for joining in on this round, Donna. 😌
"Living is all lines and angles, beings on their paths from birth to death. Life, though, is a circle, a perpetual recycling of energy into energy, of necessary reciprocity."
What a tremendously beautiful piece of writing.
I'm honored by your comment, Sarah Teresa (do you go by one or both names?). Thank you so much for spending some time here today.
Either is great, but most people just call me Sarah :)
So glad to know about yr writing.
Likewise!
This is a beautiful post, Elizabeth. There are some gorgeous lines and passages in it, like this one: "A dot is a fixed point; a line moves forward or backward, up or down; an angle is a line that changes its mind; a circle goes somewhere and comes back again. Exist, travel, turn, return. Living is all lines and angles, beings on their paths from birth to death. Life, though, is a circle, a perpetual recycling of energy into energy, of necessary reciprocity. How heartening to remember to see the geometry of being as soft and cyclical, like seasons, like days."
My planned post last week was on wheels - and then delayed. It was wonderful to see your post on circles and the circularity of things... soft and cyclical.
Thank you, Amy. It always make me happy when I find myself in sync with people I read and respect. Even though I know some might say it's just coincidence, I like the feeling of connection it brings. Your post brought in a whole other aspect to circularity, and one worth considering: Do all our wheels serve us?