Pancake therapy

Last Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday, pancake day, here in England.

In our house most days are pancake days. Pancakes are one of the few things that Mia and Joss will eat for breakfast. So Shrove Tuesday doesn’t really mean much.  
But this year I got up very early to make pancakes for our Community Café.

Still half asleep, I measured out milk and flour and broke in an egg.

Outside the sky was just beginning to turn from black to velvet blue as I beat the ingredients together and let the mixture stand. 
Outside the world was filling with birdsong. 
Inside, the kitchen was filling with the smell of sizzling butter

There is something amazingly calming about cooking while the world is sleeping.
Nothing to break your train of thought.
No children asking unanswerable questions.
No canned laughter from the television.
No buzzing phones.
No faceless voices floating out of computers. 

Just you and your dreams and the hope that always comes with a brand new day.
As I poured the batter into the pan, it felt as though anything was possible.
That perhaps this was the day when my pancakes would be perfect.

The thing about making pancakes is that, as long as you have the right pan, there is very little that can go wrong,( unless you toss them too high).

If they get holes in while they cook, fill them in with a bit more mixture.

If they are too crispy, let them cool until they have softened.

If they are too thin, call them crepes.

If they are too thick call them " American style," pancakes.

If they are not perfectly round -  who cares, they still taste good.  

It would be great if life were like that.

If an emptiness of an aching heart could be filled with a drop of mixture.

If waiting for a while could make a problem disappear.
If calling something by a different name made everything fine.
The truth is, life will never be as simple as making a pancake,
But there are always things you can  do to make it better, like choosing the most delicious filling: sugar and lemon, nutella, maple syrup, jam, squirty cream. ....
Perhaps the best thing to do is to begin each day with delicious decisions and a little bit of pancake therapy.

Early morning stack of pancakes