Food for the spirit

(from my journal entry dated December 5, 2011, a Monday)

Binasa ko ulit yung first two chapters ng “The Artist Way.” For some reason, I keep forgetting the author’s name.* Which, I guess, only goes to show that she is an effective writer. Readers like me remember her writing more than we remember the author.

Anyway, I read it yesterday because I had thought of updating my “journey” in unblocking my creativity. Dalawa yung pinapagawa nyang activities sa book na yun na basic throughout the process. The first is this—journal writing—although the term used in the book is “morning pages.” The second one is the “artist date,” wherein one has to go out on a date once a week to “feed” the artist within with some new experience or insight, etc. It has to be done alone.

I can do that. I mean, I’ve always liked solitary dates—watching movies, viewing paintings at museums, going to bookstores, etc., all by myself. However, I don’t know how to schedule my artist dates. I mean, I can do it Saturdays or Sundays, but where do I go? I guess I have to list down places I’ve always wanted to go to.

Artist dates daw need not be costly. It can be a simple visit to a park or a tour of a “new” place. Hmm. There are some places in Metro Manila I’ve always wanted to explore. Pasig, for example. Or yung hometown ni Botong Francisco sa Rizal. (Ok, that’s not Metro Manila anymore.) Kaya lang, I don’t remember reading in the book how long an artist date should be. A couple of hours? One whole day? Nagba-vary na lang siguro. Kung employee ka working Monday to Friday, a few hours would suffice. Pero if you have a long weekend ahead, you can plan on a longer artist date, I guess. That would be nice…

We had Ginataang Totong yesterday. It’s sticky rice cooked in sweet coconut milk with mongo beans. I had Ate Gina cook it because it was rainy the whole day yesterday, and for sentimental reasons I suppose, I thought we should have some comfort food for meryenda. Foods like that were what we always had when we were growing up. Champorado, Ginataan, Lugaw, etc.

Sa tingin ko, the concept of comfort food has a lot to do with our memories, of childhood usually. The security and “snugness” you felt while eating something. One TV show I saw had guests have spaghetti and pizza as their comfort food. For the life of me, I don’t know how “comforting” those foods could be to me. But then, it’s THEIR memory and sentiments, not mine.

For my generation (who were not raised on fastfood, and I don’t mean everyone in my generation, that is), lutong-bahay (or home-cooked foods) are comfort food. The warmth of the food served before you while a storm raged outside. Or the “umami” of the nilagang kangkong with bagoong you ate with the entire family after your father just lost his job. Gets?

Buti na lang simple lang yung comfort food ko. Di mamahalin. The only complication there would be the coconut milk, kasi you get that sa palengke pa. I don’t know if the “instant” coco milk can live up to the natural.

Today being December and the ground being wet from all the raining yesterday (and last night), it’s time for comfort food. What about warm sunny days? Halo-halo and gulaman suffice. Ah, yes. Sinigang. But much as I’d like to think there’s a particular food I crave during summer, I am at a loss. Our family is not really “summery.” Growing up, we rarely went for bakasyon grande during summer. So what we ate day in and day out were practically the same for summer. But I do remember hot quiet days during Lent, which, back then, I found utterly boring. Now, I crave for those quiet boring days, what with these noisy little critters around the house. Chapter!

*Julia Cameron