Today, I would like to share with you my home alone experience. Once upon a time someone told me that little discomfort here and there can mount up to great distress and even to depression. Yes, I heard that, but it never occured to me as a point of concern. I am a young mother of two teenagers. My two teens has been complaining about the hours I’m taking when preparing meals. When its time to cook, they kind of harassing me in their own soft way. Like asking Mum, when
will the food be ready? How long should we wait? We are good friends, we joke and talk a lot to each other, but when time comes for cooking, I somehow feel threaten and uncomfortable.
During this passed Christmas holiday, I went to stay at my elder sister’s place and she and my mom and my youngest son travelled together to the village. And guest what?
The spirit of home alone and the freedom that comes along with it, its so real..
To start with -
Before my elder sister travelled, she bought for me a Christmas gift - a set of six pots along with kitchen utensils. Whao… Three of the pots were unusually smaller size – to me. I mean, I never had such size of pots before. Using them, reminded me back those days when I was young and free, way back from toddler days to 5 or 6 years of age around there, when we were playing home-games at the backyard of our parent's house at the village. Cooking some stuff in pots made out of tins, playing to be parents with children and houses build from sands and scrap materials. Yeah, gone those innocent angelic days.
Back to reality
With my new Christmas gift of pots I spend most of my time in my sister's kitchen. Experimenting my new pots using different recipes. During my stays there, I actually realized that my sister was a perfectionist and a top class lady, a side of her, I never knew.
Everything in her kitchen works 100% (percent). No discomfort here and there to cause distress. Whatever you want to do in that kitchen you do it with ease. No strive. Every equipment there, such as kitchen utensils are durable and does what they were bought for, perfectly. If, you want to open a can, one minute you are done. You want to warm up something in a microvave in minutes
– its well done. No faulty equipments to waist time. You put water on the stove and decided to wash the dishes quickly, before you even rinse the dishes, water has already cooked. If you want to cut onions, the knives are sharp enough to do just that, no struggle. All that is needed in the kitchen is there, to make food preparation fast and manageable. I had an amazing time at my sister's place. Especially in her spacious kitchen, I would move freely, dancing to the aroma of my cooking pot. The pantry had it all, all the nitty & gritty. Well stocked, I did'nt needed to go out for a month for anything. What a Christmas to remember? I was moved by the kitchen equipments, utenslils to be at attention like that, taking their positions to offer what they were bought for, like they were under some kind of strict command from a militarian authority. Performing their duties as they suppose to do, like they were understanding perfectly well their role in the kitchen, to support my stay and give it a pleasant experience.
Whoa… who would'nt want to have such a supportive kitchen?. Working hassle-free. My elder son would pop in from time to time and I would always had a meal for him, prepared in no time.
1st Lesson learned
I had a self-realization experience that, I am that kind of a person that buy and keep unnecessary and cheap equipments that take much space in my kitchen and cupboards. I've realized that all the frustration that I was getting from my boys was coming from having equipments and utenslils for the sake of having them as well as for display, which are not good enough or durable to render excellence performance. The greatest lesson amongst all is that valuable, durable or expensive equipments carry excellence, perfection, save time and elecrity and gives great value for money. Having cheap equipments for managing the kitchen and display, can cause one soft stress, frustration and build up distress over time.
Rather, remove unnecessary clutters from your kitchen. Get yourself durable equipmemts and utensils. Durable equipments stays long and produce the best. Life will become much easier and less stress, especially if you have boys like mine, who does not want to spend time waiting for hours for the stove to finish cooking two hours later, after it started cooking. Life already has its own stress, you don’t want another stress from the kitchen too.
2nd Lesson learned
Spirit of home alone & freedom
During this time I realized that home alone does really have a spirit behind. At time, without realizing, I would mess up the place. Having every kitchen surface overloaded and overcrowded with pots, cups, uncooked food, cutleries, you mention them. At the end of the day, I will have the sink full of plates and lot of spoons, as if I were with people in the house or some kind of parties with some invisible entities. For all those dirty dishes, cups and spoons cannot come from one person. I will tell myself that tomorrow I won't mess up like this. Coming tomorrow, the same thing happened. As I am writing this, there are still two weeks to go, before my sister comes back. I still have some time to keep living freely before I start getting myself together, so that she would come and find her place in one fine piece. Otherwise, she won't give me this chance again.
Pssst..I almost forget to share this with you - Being away from your own place to somebody else place can be such a great experience. At times it feels like the world has come to an standstill, as you are being relieved from all the responsibilities of your own life into a whole new arena that expect nothing from you. So you just live in the moment. Its really needed. Life indeed have so much pressure and sometimes we need to vanish to a quiete and safe place, to reconnect with our inner man. This passed Christmas holiday, was the best time for me. Hope you will arrange one for yourself, with much greater result. I would be happy to hear your experience.
What the Experts are saying about - Home Alone
It gives you a whole lot of perspectives, independence, responsibilities, and in general you learn how to manage your life on your own. It improved personal exploration. Increased creativity and more social energy. Whoa....