Only a few hours ago, a name popped up in my inbox that I hadn’t seen it years. It was a note from my Orgo II professor from a decade ago (yikes!) at Georgetown. The subject line was “recipe with (meatless) success.” As it turns out, my professor’s wife had found a chili recipe of mine (this one or this one—I’ll have to ask him) via The Washington Post. She’d served it to loved ones, and according to my professor, everyone really liked it….

Years ago, when I was living with an ex, he and I hosted a friend of his for a few days. That friend went for a walk in the park near what was then our place. On this walk, the friend found a wooden figurine of the deity Ganesha sitting on the ground near a bench. He brought it back to the apartment and offered it to us as a gesture of thanks to us for hosting him. It seemed like a fortunate…

It means a lot to me that, during my spell of intermittent weekend reading posting and sporadic recipe sharing this winter and spring, this community has given me the space to pop in and out of blogging as I’m able. A few of you have even emailed to say that you find it nice when I post just to say that I can’t post. We’re all so hard on ourselves. If my being too busy or overwhelmed to write much creates just a…