When we don’t see the sun for weeks and it is cold and wet and the winter looks like lasting forEVER and we have moaned our arses off about it in every available social media, we might realise we are actually craving Vitamin C as well as Vitamin D but we can actually do something about the Vitamin C. And the first thing we think of when we think of Vitamin C is bright yellow lemons.
When we were children at the beach we had lemon trees and if we ever visited my grandmother who lived in Christchurch way down in the South Island of New Zealand we took lemons. They could not grow lemons down there so when we visited and we visited often, Mum always packed a few lemons into the folds of our clothes for Grandma. Lemons were gold.
So when a friend sent me lemons saved from her mothers tree in Galveston, Texas I made sure to use them well. Lemons are a precious gift out here on the cold prairies.
Lemons and Olives and Avocados are the three fruits I really, really miss growing.
Here is my mother’s recipe for lemon honey. When I went to find it so I could link back to it for you, I discovered that I had written the original Lemon Honey post in January 23 2012. A colder season than this one for sure and still I had cycled back to lemon curd or lemon honey as my Mum used to call it.
I yearn for the bright yellow tanginess of lemon honey today.
To yearn for something then act on that need is so satisfying. What if the struggle stopped and we no longer yearned to improve. What would happen to the human race if we were all encouraged to be content and satisfied. If we accepted the assurances that all is well, move along, nothing to see here. What if calm, complacent, quiet, gently fattened, slow moving herds of people is their goal. Directed by soft music and changing screens of calm colours. So much information and data thrown at our heads that our heads Zone right OUT. Mired in inertia. An endless scroll downwards.
If we were content and satisfied all the time there would be no inventions, no improvements, no struggle. We would all fall into a sublime apathy. Imagine how dull it would be. If we stopped worrying at problem knots, untangling thoughts, pushing at boundaries, poking at norms with a long stick, dreaming then doing. Our vehicles would even stop, we would be looking out the wrong window, or at a little screen, or at a big screen, idling idly at life’s green lights. What if we conceded to what made us happy and took that happy drug, then sat down in our chairs and proceeded with our lives motion after slow motion in that happy haze staring at that happy thing. Ah well we would think – whats done is done, it is all a mess, nothing I can do about it. Would happy and content make us run and strive, find new music, search for that perfect well made coat you could wear until you are dead or stay up all night with charts and writings, scribbling notes, design and build new ways to clean water and improve our air, design houses adapted to flood or famine with store rooms for plenty, look towards the changing landscape and create the inventions to adapt to it, work on new ways to teach large numbers of people to feed themselves, enable plans to create community on your street or in your village. Where is the plan for the changes that are coming? Or are we all content just to complain about it. Would content allow us to climb right up out of the box and think about things over there? Or would being satisfied and content encourage us to simply Stop, murmur a few protests then go back to sleep. We could stand for hours in a little patch of sunshine and become cows waiting to be fattened, talking and moo-aning gently about the state of it all.
Content will close your eyes. Moaning about it is just another form of accepting it. Moaning breeds content. Content is screen after screen without any action, without decision. Just pretty lights with words. Empty.
Real Happy comes in glorious moments. Yearning is the same. And often both appear in the muck of hard work. It is that smallest shaft of sun that you can easily miss if your eyes are not open to it if you are looking out the inertia window. To be truly wide awake and taking the turns necessary we need to be on the watch for our happy moment or that moment of clear longing and see it and say to ourselves “There’s One. I got happy” then turn that corner and look for more. And collect happy moments like pebbles in your pocket. Collect those goals like safety pins. So you can take that stone out later in your life or even later in the week and remember that tack.
Then with your hand in one pocket smoothing your happy beads, reach out for that next goal. Turn the corner. Get your head in order and your work clothes on and get back to work improving your patch of the planet. The world is changing – ADAPT!
Embrace the struggle. There is work to be done.
I hope you have a lovely day. I am off, back out into the dark muck where my work is.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
87 responses to “Moaning breeds Content”
This week I volunteered myself for a job at work no one was doing – really looking into how to get rid of products we bought and never sold. I will say my company is FAB at recycling. But. Some things have expiration dates, and that causes legal issues. You can’t even give it away! Health and safety laws, you know how Europe is about those! I’m trying – brainstorming and asking everyone in different departments for ideas. It’s kind of exciting as I hate waste – and this is both a waste of money and things made already. My challenge!
That is an excellent challenge especially with the legal aspect – can you break it down and sell the components? I know you have already thought of that. I hate waste too. HATE it! c
I’m trying! It’s a pretty big place that considers a loss in tens of thousands of euro acceptable. But also family owned so I think my take on things might be welcome.
So much living still to do, so little time…. Good words to remind us to stir ourselves and get on, instead of sitting and thinking that we’ve done everything we need to do. Love your liquid gold, lemon curd is also wonderful stirred into Greek yoghurt. I make passionfruit curd with the glut of fruit I get in spring. Also tart and delicious!
Wow… your words are a call to arms, hands, legs, feet, bodies, minds… to embrace our possibilties, run with them and make the into something wonderful.
“To yearn for something then act on that need is so satisfying…” Is what did, are doing. To live this life everyday, new challenges, experiences, accomplishments is, for us, Real Happy. It can be as small as jars of lemon curd or picking a tomato from the garden, eating home cooked meals, or big as the choice to rebel… to grow & cook our food, to support local farmers & producers, to eschew news media & Big, to think & do for ourselves. Saying Not like That… Like This… by our actions & deeds, by our words & conversations & choices.
I am reading late today, busy getting the work done! I think I will glean a few quotes from this post to keep on my desk. I love the sound of lemon honey, sounds much nicer than the word curd. I think this weekend I will try your mothers lemon honey. It will be delicious dalloped on top of pancakes or waffles.
See how you did that? You collected your shiny happy pebble and went out to work in the dark muck with no issue at all. Thank you for the inspiring post Celi!
Very good post!
In phoenix, January is when all the citrus trees in everyone’s yard puts out. Suddenly everyone has lots of lemons – and oranges and grapefruit. Sacks of them are thrusted onto you at work. At one point lemons become a nuisance rather than a pleasure. Come to sunny AZ and get all the lemons you want.
Sounds like heaven to me! We could make Lemincello! (sp)
Got any recipes for bags and bags of grapefruit?
Grapefruit curd
Honestly, your wisdom just makes me smile happily, thank you miss c! And as for the lemon curd, this was so very timely. Big Man and I just got back from an overnight trip to France. In a very grand cake shop he ordered a most elaborate concoction which looked stunning and tasted…ordinary. I chose a teeny tiny pastry case filled with lemon curd and it was two tiny mouthfuls (and I shared!) of absolute perfection 😀
Beautiful writing Celi xx
What a great post, ‘Embrace the struggle. There is work to be done’ is my new mantra.
I love lemon pastries. I haven’t made anything lemony in a long time, the thought of lemon tarts and pies sound delicious. I eat an orange every day to get some vitamin c. I stopped drinking store bought orange juice after I found out how it was made. Of course I can always squeeze my own juice. I should get a bag of lemons to keep some lemonade in the fridge though. Recently, I tried to grow lemon seeds on the window sill but they didn’t sprout. Probably my soil isn’t good and I need some fertilizer. Oh, lemon cake just came to mind. 🙂
It is also possible that the lemon did not produce viable seeds. So may not have been your fault at all. Can you grow lemon trees where you live? c
Okay, I like that it’s not my fault. 🙂 I’m not sure what will grow here. My neighbor has fruit trees. Maybe I need to put a little more effort into it. I literally just plopped some wet soil into an egg shell carton, poked holes in the center and dropped in seeds. I know, I should have done a little more than that lol. Sometimes I just throw seeds out my back door and say if it grows it grows! Oh that’s bad, and yet I find it so hilarious when I do it, lol 🙂