Learning to Compromise.

Lest you think that the Crunchy Marriage is always an easy street filled with meditation time, aura adjustments and tofu making (all of these are things we suck at) , it seemed important to mention that crunchiness and marriage are built on a foundation of compromise.  We've all met someone who repeatedly makes a ridiculous claim like, "I'm vegetarian, except for hot dogs."  We're not talking about that. As humorous as blatant inconsistency can be, we're talking about living in "the zone".

The zone is about realistically evaluating choices within options you have and locating a comfortable place between that and your ideals. Here's why I am thinking about this.

We're buying a house now, and we're packing up all that we own and trying not to keep the kitchen stocked with our usual ridiculous display of veggies, whole grains and spices. Why? Because moving them is going to be a pain in my butt and because I have no time to cook.  So at the moment, we've definitely gone out to eat more than is ever advisable. But the scarier part of that is that we have stayed in half the time. Yes, it's scarier. Why? Because last week we ate Rising Moon Organics 4 Cheese Pizza four times. How does it come to this?

 Ayurveda and most other traditional cultures claim that food made fresh by someone who cares is simply better for you.  And we all know this down in our gut. Remember Cafeteria Food?  And what college student would refuse home cooking? Who doesn't love coming home to a kitchen that smells like a delicious feast? Movies like Mistress of Spices, Chocolat, and Simply Irresistible all proclaim the power of food made with Spirit.

But right now, it's frozen pizza. It was on sale at the co-op, so we stocked up, and we're saving money. We admit it. Organic though it may be, it's depressing. And our attempts to dress it up with extra cheese, sauce, herbs, etc.... they lack. Especially during this season of farm fresh produce, not being able to cook for a few days each week has been dismal.

Slow food, made in our kitchen, is a value of ours, even to milling our own grain for beer. When we can't do that, we love to eat at fun local places like Juniper, Trattoria Aroma, and Merge (who all seek to buy local produce whenever possible), and all the wonderful ethnic restaurants around Buffalo.
But it is the place between our values and our reality where we are living right now.

We are thankful for organic convenience foods, we are grateful for a local co-op that carries them, and we are so happy to be moving into our first house. We are thankful we had time to make some food to store in our fridge for this more difficult time. We appreciate our efforts to can last year's harvest, even more now than ever.

But I miss veggies. And if I see another pizza for weeks, I will weep audibly.