#Adjusting the Cooking Time
Life’s Funny…Until It’s Not™
But somehow we find a way through it. We maneuver through the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sometimes we handle what life throws at us like champions, and other times we’re standing in the middle of the room like a deer in headlights, wondering what we walked into that room for.
A lifetime looks different for everyone. Some people spend only a short time here on earth, while others live well beyond 100 years. Some of us are blessed with good health, while others struggle throughout their lives.
As of this writing, my lifetime is 66 years and 7 months. I want to keep myself healthy, happy, and balanced well into my 80s.
And then there are days that go by in an instant.
Like the day I found myself in a heated discussion with my 87-year-old mother.
What were we arguing about?
Salmon.
Yes — fish.
My mom had short-term memory issues and arthritis in her back and shoulders. But her all-time favorite joy in life was cooking. If she wasn’t in the kitchen making something, she was reading a cookbook, looking for new ideas.
Cooking wasn’t just something she did. It was who she was.
As her limitations grew, so did her frustration. What once brought her joy had slowly become a reminder of what she couldn’t do the same way anymore.
One evening, as I was getting ready to start dinner, I walked into the kitchen and found my mom sitting in a chair, her cookbook open, with salmon ready to go into the oven.
We had already had many discussions about cooking salmon — mostly because it’s the one thing I can never seem to get right.
So my first question was, “What are you doing?”
Now, I know you’re not supposed to look a gift horse in the mouth, but there I was, ready to have a heated discussion about the recipe and the temperature of the oven.
My mother insisted we do it her way.
So I did what every good daughter sometimes does — I begrudgingly went along with her plan.
Until it didn’t quite work out.
Our oven doesn’t regulate properly, and she had forgotten that part of the equation. Dinner took a little longer than usual to get on the table because life, at that moment, had become a bit of a sticky situation.
I learned from my son when he was growing up that sometimes you have to pick your battles in life.
Even though I knew the salmon wouldn’t be done on the timetable in the recipe, I also didn’t want to make my mother feel any less capable than she already did because of her memory and arthritis issues.
So we adjusted the cooking time.
And we enjoyed the salmon.
My mom has since passed away, and what once felt like a frustrating moment in the kitchen now feels like something much different.
I would give anything to sit in that kitchen again and argue about fish.
It’s funny how one small moment can sum up a person’s lifetime.
When I think of my mom now, I don’t picture hospitals or illness. I picture her happy, sitting with a cookbook in her hands, reading recipes and imagining the next meal she would cook.
And tonight, I’m cooking salmon for my dad.
Life keeps moving.
We adjust the temperature.
We extend the cooking time.
We sit down at the table.
Because sometimes in life, just like in the kitchen, we simply make the adjustments we need to get through the moment.
Because life’s funny… until it’s not.
🎧 You can listen to the full episode of Life’s Funny…Until It’s Not™ here:
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