Chaos. Change. Crisis. In the grand recipe of life, these are common ingredients. All I know is that I find them in my personal mixing bowl far more than I’d like. They’re in my life now. Probably yours too. My initial response is to reach for the chocolate. This might be why my closet contains a variety of clothes from size 12 to 24. Okay, I lied. Sometimes I also reach for chips. Or doughnuts. Or-like last week’s binge-Bit-O-Honey. You know what I’m talking about, right? Those chewy bite-sized candies that taste like honey even as they extract all your fillings? Except I couldn’t stop with just a bit. What I really ate was more like Bag-O-Honey. My dentist sent me a thank-you card. From the Caribbean. I think this all means something, besides the fact that I should have pursued dentistry as a career. I think that when I’m consuming chocolate, I’m really craving something else. Something healthier. Something deeper. Why I get fixated on comfort foods is anybody’s guess. Chocolate, after all, is just a quick fix. A tasty substitute. A delectable melt-in-my-mouth imposter. What if, in those all-too-frequent seasons of chaos, change, or crisis, I could somehow stop settling for second best and give my soul whatever it’s really seeking?
Book Review: Chocolatherapy by Karen Scalf Linamen
This was a pretty good book. It offers some helpful thoughts and advice, and it had some great humor too. Not much else to say, but I did enjoy it.