On homemade chocolate cookies and unexpected happiness

For a while now I've been practicing to make do with what I have. Instead of rushing to the store when I need something, I take a long hard look around me and try to find something that I can use in my stuff. When I'm hungry I don't head straight for the bagel place but go into the kitchen and figure out how to turn what's there into something good to eat. Anticipating this, I did some major grocery shopping two weeks ago and now I'm not allowed to buy anything ready-made. The other day I had an immense craving for something sweet and short of eating brown sugar straight from the jar, I didn't have anything. Or so I thought. I then saw I had cake mix, frosting and crackers. Instead of baking the cake and topping it with the frosting, I took the frosting and put it on the crackers. Thus were born my favorite homemade chocolate cookies to date :)

This practice of mine is in part born from my readings over the past few months. While I was in Houston my friend Paula gave my Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth and I've been slowly reading my way through it. It's a little like yoga (and, for that matter everything else): take what you need, leave the rest behind. And on the whole I really like it. I also read some of Thich Nhat Hanh's The Miracle of Mindfulness and I'm currently listening to his latest book, The Art of Power, on my iPod. All these different readings, paired with some concerted effort on my side to be more involved in my own life and affairs, are helping me to be more present in the everyday. That's something pretty new to me, who usually inhabits the past and future more easily than the present moment. I like the change.