My sweet friend, Karen, sent me another sourdough start down lasterday with one of her darling little boys because I let mine get *beyond-sourdough*. I fed it last night and decided to start a loaf of bread.
Sourdough isn't difficult, but it is time consuming. You mix flour, water, salt and some of your sourdough start into a medium dough and let it rise overnight, about 12 hours. Then you punch it down, shape your loaf, let it rise again for about 1-2 hours and then bake. Hands-on is only about 10 minutes total, that includes mixing, punching down, shaping, preheating the oven and dutch oven, transferring the risen dough to the dutch oven and starting the two-part baking process. Yeah, you just let it do all the work... and it works slow! My favorite part about fresh sourdough bread it the crunch, crust outside and the soft and fluffy inside.
So this is where my brain started whirring!
Have you ever considered just how much we, as women, are like crusty sourdough bread? We take a lot of time to turn out *right*. And, frankly, sometimes we want to rush that process! We want Pillsbury Dough results using a sourdough starter! Those Pillsbury Crescent rolls are yummy and FAST! And for some reason we think we have to be that fast, when really, were are sourdough all the way!
- We get sick... we want to be well YES-TER-DAY!
- We lose a loved one... we want to stop hurting YES-TER-DAY!
- We have financial difficulties... we want to be out of debt YES-TER-DAY!
WE JUST NEED TO BE KIND TO OURSELVES!
We need to say, it's ok to take time to heal, to grieve, to dig out, to adjust, and often times, accept that we will NEVER be who and what we were before [before we lost our parent or child, went through a divorce, had surgery, moved away from a best friend, before...] It's OK, because it has to be OK!
So my advice today is allow yourself to be like that sourdough bread that just came out of my oven:
- Crusty on the outside [read- I can do hard things. With God I can do all things!]
- Soft on the inside [read- don't become jaded by the negative things around you. Fret not yourself!]
6 comments:
Joanie, I like it!!!
And yes, be KIND to JOANIE. Everybody loves her!!
Know what?? My sourdough start is beyond sourdough too~
Well, it just so happens that I sat down to research making my own sourdough start when I read your post. Funny, huh?
Did you know that sourdough is much healthier than other breads BECAUSE it is so time consuming? The wheat is not terribly easy for our bodies to digest. But, by the fermentation process, all of the healthy goodness is released (essentially pre-digested) and able to be absorbed and assimilated by our bodies. (That is an extremely summarized version!)
So, you are exactly right. We need to be more like sourdough. Those crescent rolls taste good, but sourdough IS good. It is REAL. Sourdough blesses the bodies, not just the mouths of those who eat it.
And we CAN do hard things. I always tell my kids this. Roxie is the only one who listens, so when I tell her that she can't slice a tomato with a sharp knife, she says, "But, Mom, I can do hard things, remember?" :)
Can you tell I really liked this post, since I wrote an epistle comment? Love you!
I think I'm gonna print this off and put it on my fridge.
Thanks so much for your love and friendship,Joanie. Lots of love, Sheri
Oh that looks good enough to eat! Reminds me of Germany, that's what the bread always looked like :) I wish you lived closer to I could get a piece LOL
And now I want homemade sourdough! So much so that I made rolls for dinner...a little hard, crusty, and dense but not too bad with butter and honey. And jam, if you're someone who's not me :)
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