mind wander time

Note: The following contains philosophical musings of author. AND, I like to ramble at times. If said topic bores you, I highly suggest you close this tab in your browser now and check back on Monday for the next post about the killer vegetable garden I've started. I won’t be offended – really – it’s okay.

My autobiographical description to the right of this entry – yep right over there –> tells you a little about this (relatively) new endeavor into cooking as a means to enjoy the lighter side of life. This morning, I finally realized why I'm enjoying the cooking time so much these days...it’s my mind wander time that I had lost for a few too many years. When I was coaching, often I had daily moments (or hours) to just let my mind wander wherever thoughts would take it. While in transit to some far off location, in early mornings when the sun would rise over mountain peaks, or in long evening runs in new locations, I had time to ponder the past, present and future. Going back to grad school, I lost that mind wander time but am only just realizing - a mere 4.5 years after grad school began- I lost such an important part of my day. It just wasn’t programmed into my academically-based day or week; for all practical purposes I did NOT regularly run, I didn't see sun rises from the top of the mountains and I surely didn't drive cross-country by myself. I miss those days, but not in a 'I wanna go back' way. More in a, 'why did I feel more in balance?' way. I've slowly started to get back to some daily mind wander time by running and cycling on a more regular basis, AND by cooking. Yes, it requires great concentration at times, especially when I'm trying to get my brain to remember 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda when going from reading the cook book to actively measuring (note to self: work on short term memory). But, for the most part, cooking is allowing me to re-insert some mind wander time on a more regular basis and damn it feels good.