Putting a meal on the table
Published: Thu, 08/20/15
When I was a child I asked my mother what was the secret of preparing a successful meal. My mother always was a very good cook, hostess, had a degree in food science and was a domestic science teacher for a decade or so in the 50s and 60s. Why I asked as a child I am not sure, but I was asking the right person. (She also taught me how to dissect a rabbit but that is another story for another time.) Anyway, the answer was, ‘know exactly when you want to serve the meal and work backwards from there.’
If you decided to have a Midsummer celebration next June the 24th and serve a meal at 8pm you could work back from that starting today. There is even time to order a lamb, piglet, gosling or turkey chick and feed it up (just don’t give it a name or it it will become a pet rather than be dinner in 9 months time). Vegetables can be planned and planted and you could do something really special with most of the food home grown as well as home cooked.
Or, you might text a couple of friends this morning and invite them over this evening to eat at 8pm. So you place an order for a delivery of pizza, collect some beer and ice cream on the way home from work. Okay, it isn’t going to be the healthiest meal in the world but it would still be fun and sociable.
In both cases you begin with the end in mind, clearly visualise it in fact and then make it happen. Of course it may not turn out exactly as you initially planned, the people you want to celebrate midsummer with turn out to be mainly vegetarian, so you can drop the idea of raising your own livestock and find some more vegetables to grow. The pizza shop is booked up solid with kids parties so you visit the chip shop instead. Doesn’t really matter so long as you eat well with people you care about.
I am not suggesting that this is some radical discovery my mother deserves the Nobel Prize for, although if it was her idea maybe she does. However, this does tie in with another expression that people sometimes use and it goes something like.
“When you fully commit yourself to a worthy venture then unseen forces rise up and support you in your endeavour.” Which sounds terribly new agey and dramatic but there is some truth in it.
Deciding when you are going to put the meal on the table (committing yourself to the worthy venture) ties in with the idea of the RAC which I wrote about last week. The RAC being the unconscious part of our brain which notices things and brings them to the attention of the conscious mind. Once you have decided your intention, and when it is going to happen, then the unconscious mind is activated in noticing anything that is going to assist in the process. So you notice vegetables and other foods you have never tried before. You hear of new recipes and ways of cooking. This includes recognising the people who can help you in some way and thus being able to ask for their assistance. If you reveal your intention people may even offer their assistance unbidden, which very much seems like previously ‘unseen forces rising up to help you.’
This does not just apply to serving meals of course, getting a qualification, starting a new business, getting fitter or learning a new skill etc. Decide you really want it, visualise when and where it will happen and get to work.
This subject is particularly on my mind because I am putting together a camp for next year which I have wanted to run for some time. The camp will be devoted to applying Stav principles and concepts to Close Quarter Combat training and self-defence. Dates will be 3rd to 5th of June 2016 and location will be Somerset. That is when the food will be on the table, so now I am working back from there. More details very soon but you can put that date in your diary.
regards
Graham
PS In the meantime, I have moved the date for next Crewkerne Saturday Seminar to the 5th of September and I will be teaching in Salisbury on the 12th September between 10am and 1pm. You can find links to both events from http://www.iceandfire.org/calendar.html