Gratitude Practice 2020 Day 24: The hope that is a bag of salad mix
Gratitude Practice 2020 Day 24: The hope that is a bag of salad mix
I'm not exactly sure when bagged salad really became a staple of modern life but I sure am grateful for it. I probably purchase a bag of salad mix weekly and with confidence I think I've sampled every brand, every mix, every option, and every combo. What's not to love? Bagged salads provide a quick, cost effective and for the most part healthly meal option. It's what I consider a very respectable fast-ish food. Just carefully open the bag, slather the greens with the provided dressing, grab a fork and wa la...lunch. Supe it up with a heaping handful of cherry tomatoes, a sliced cucumber if you've got one, or sprinkle some shredded carrots. Feel free to add in berries, nuts and bacon if you are feeling fancy. Want to make it a real meal? Just toss in some hard-boiled eggs, chopped ham, chicken or beef and it's nutritionly rich, culinary dense and perfectly cheap. And then cheese, of course. I'm a firm believer that everything is better with cheese. Bagged salads are easy, reliable, ubitiquis, healthy, for the most part consistent and just make all things better. Delicious. Delightful. Dependable. And often dinner.
Without question, I have a strong commitment to bagged salad mixes. I also have very weak follow through when it comes to this leafy convenience. I have been known to have at least one past its prime bag full of slimey greens in my fridge...at all times. Right now, I think I've got two bags. I am not proud of this life choice but I'm also not ashamed. I'm doing my best. I'm real enough to admit I pitch rotten bags of salad mixes just as often as I enjoy them. And I believe that somewhere in-between these two realities is where hope really lives.
Purchasing a bag of salad mix represents the hope of healthy meal prep and intention of life promoting choices. You are not just buying a bag of lettuce. You are buy the hope of a better world or at least the hope of a better lunch. Pitching the bag of wilted neglected disappointment filled greens after they've gone south provides a weekly reflection exercise that from here on out I am choosing to frame as a hope practice. I believe each devoured bag indicates progress towards balance and boundaries and each neglected bag kindly communications to me..."It's alright, Liz, you did your best. I forgive you. We'll give it a go again next week." I believe this repetitive act of placing a bag of salad mix in either my shopping cart or my trash can is at the least a growth exercise and at the most hope personified. Some weeks are easily and quickly enjoyed like a saucy spring kale crunch mix. And other weeks are the almost tastless ever pale bag of caution known as shredded cabbage. Some enjoyed easily and others not so much. I am getting comfortable with the idea that there is room for both realities in a both a person's fridge and in a person's life. Tonight, I'm grateful for bagged salad mixes and all they are teaching me...a careful blend of terrific accomplishment and well intended failure and hope somehow lives in-between.