A Year of Gratitude – July 24, 2024

I found my gratitude in the kitchen today. That’s not unusual for me, but it has been a while since I found myself making something purely because I enjoy it.

I cook and bake for my family every day. I know that many people view that work as a chore, but I have never felt that way. I love to be in the kitchen and making food for my favorite people is a joy.

I also love to develop recipes. While that is work, it still doesn’t feel like a chore. I truly enjoy that process, the challenge of taking an idea and working on it until the reality matches the idea that started the whole process. I really do love it.

I used to do a better job of finding a balance between cooking and baking for utility and pleasure. I haven’t done a very good job of finding that balance over the last year and a half.

Life has been busy, which makes finding balance more difficult. Being busy makes an easy excuse not to make time for doing things for the sake of enjoying them. Life, ironically, has a way of getting in the way of life if you let it.

I’ve promised myself to try and find the balance more often. Promises are just words if you don’t put a bit of action behind them. So, I headed into the kitchen today with the goal of making something for the enjoyment of making it.

I fought the urge to choose a recipe that needs a round of testing because that falls under the banner of work. I decided not to make something that was a meal because that is something I do every day. Instead, I decided to make a cake.

If I was going to make the time to bake for joy’s sake, we might as well have a cake to celebrate. I didn’t take photos of the process or try to capture videos to share on social media, although the algorithm would prefer if I did. I just baked it so that I would have a cake to share with the people I love.

I planned and prepped. I made two cake batters and baked four layers of cake. I made buttercream frosting while the cake cooled. After dinner, I leveled, stacked, and frosted the cake.

By the time I lowered the glass dome on the cake stand, I had spent hours in the kitchen working on this cake. I loved every moment.

Doing the things we love is how we find joy in life no matter how busy it gets. I’m going to make sure that I find time to do the things that I love even when life gets busy. I know that it won’t be easy, but I’m going to try. If there’s something that you love to do, I hope that you’ll find the time for it.

This post is part of our A Year of Gratitude Series. You can find the introduction, inspiration, and entire year’s gratitude’s posts here.