The Life Lesson I Learned from Cauliflower

Yes, the white cruciferous vegetable.

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If you clicked on this, you're probably wondering, "What kind of lesson can you learn from cauliflower?"

It started with a group chat about Super Bowl snacks.

We mentioned we'd bought cauliflower chips, because we had them recently on a Taco Tuesday and enjoyed them. Then the conversation turned to "healthy" versions of foods and whether or not they were actually better for you than the traditional versions.

I definitely don't think that just being made with cauliflower instead of potatoes makes them healthy. They're still chips. But I do think that a company that's trying to make a somewhat healthier chip is also more likely to use fewer ingredients, and better ones, than the traditional snack would have.

But I also don't really like comparing things to the "normal version." The cauliflower pizza crusts we've been buying lately have been really good! But if you're eating cauliflower pizza and just thinking about how it's not bread and cheese, well, of course you're not going to enjoy it!

You just have to enjoy it for what it is.

It made me think about this past year, and why I think I've been able to deal with it better than a lot of other people have.

It's a situation that's been far from ideal, but I'm not sitting at home thinking about all of the other places I wish I could be. The concerts, parties, and trips that aren't happening. I'm making the most of the situation and the extra time at home to...

- Organize some papers I hadn't had time to get to

- Practice with my watercolor set

- Get into at-home workouts and build up my strength

- Finally clean out my car trunk

- Learn how to make a basket

- Take everything out of my bathroom, sort through all my makeup and toiletries, and

toss some things that have been in there way too long

- Finally open some of the books that have been collecting dust on my shelf

- Refresh my resume and start this website

- Just stay in and relax at home without a big personal deadline

...and countless other things I had on hold while I was going to grad school, studying for exams, and planning a wedding.

If I had spent the past year sitting there, looking out the window, thinking of all the places I couldn't go, that would have been an entire year of my life wasted. (I still can't understand, in 2021, with the Internet, countless topics to learn about, countless ebooks and audiobooks and blogs and other resources out there, how anyone could ever be bored, but that's another topic for another day.)

I'm thankful to be able to look at the bright side and enjoy things for what they are, not what else I wish they could be.