Cauliflower Harvest

When we got back from our vacation the garden had gone bonkers. The cheddar cauliflower had more than doubled in size and it was time to harvest.

I went at it with a small kitchen knife and stripped away all the leaves before hacking away at the stem.

That sucker was bigger than my head! We'll be eating cauliflower all week! It was super sweet and delicious and even though it had some bugs in it (I soaked, sprayed and visually inspected all the nooks and crannies but I'm sure there was some extra "organic" protein in there...) but nothing munched on it unlike the poor cabbage. That thing the slugs loved and it's starting to bolt.

The Singing Bird

So this is the Trader Joe's card I'm always talking about that helped my change my attitude for the better.

I'm slowly coming to accept the fact that I am a pessimist. It seems like every few years my natural mental habits lead me to a place where all I ever think about (and stress about) is what can go wrong next. When I get like that there is no break, no down time and no peace. "Think Positive" has never worked for me because it feels as false and as forced as my own predominantly negative thinking. The words on this card crystalized for me what I had been doing wrong in my thinking: not leaving room in my perception of the future for the possibility of positive things to happen. So I don't have to think positive (that will probably never happen unless I have a mental breakdown) but to pause and acknowledge that for all the negative things I just got done envisioning in the future there's at least that many positive things that COULD happen as well and I don't have to try to figure out what they might be. Very meta-thinking I know. :) I think other people must do this naturally.

I especially like that the thing promised is not a cheesy happy thing or even a lucky break but alludes to establishing a natural relationship (between branch and bird) and the imagery of creating a place within me to attract positive thinking.

Enjoy the card!