In the early 90s, I wanted to be Martha Stewart. This was before she was a terribly famous person, before she went to prison, and before there was FoodTV. Living in Minneapolis with my beautiful boyfriend in his beautiful house, I was certain I could have a beautiful life. There were many reasons that wasn’t going to happen. Foremost among those reasons was my belief that I could be “perfect.” I remember preparing an Easter feast for us and his family that included a leg of lamb stuffed with goat cheese, and… honestly, I’m tiring just thinking of the work that went into making everything hand craftedly “perfect.”
Today, I feel great pleasure making our home a comfortable and warm space. I do enjoy making food from scratch. I might even stuff a roast if it was a special occasion. But the idea that I can do, or would want to do, anything “perfectly” has left my world. I may not like it when our apartment gets cluttered and messy (as it often does) or when I don’t have time to prepare foods as I’d like, but I never feel like I’m missing the mark. It’s not only that I’m aware these days of the staging that made the Martha Stewart show; these days I live comfortably in the knowledge that all of life is “progress, not perfection” and the way I care for my family is much more than sufficient.
(The idea for this blog post came after watching a video my friend Cyndee shared on Facebook. It’s an example of something I might’ve aspired to create back in the early 90s. Ha! 🙂 )
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