Turkey Gumbo

Today I made turkey gumbo.  After all, if you've lived in southern Louisiana or southeast Texas, gumbo is a staple food of life.  The only compliment I remember receiving from my children's father was for my turkey gumbo.  He said it was better than his mother's ---- and anyone knows THAT is a compliment, indeed.  Actually, Helen was a fabulous cook and it really meant a lot to me to know I could measure up.  Back then, measuring up to his standards was a large part of my life.

First, you make a roux.  Any Cajun cook I know always starts a recipe with that statement.  Folks from that part of the world know exactly what a roux is and how tricky it can be.  From the humble stuff of flour and fat of some sort begins the nectar so many think is better than any other food there is.   From humble, simple beginnings so much greatness comes, whether the product in consideration is food or family or nations or best-sellers.  Everything begins from something simple and every day.

How I would find so much joy in seeing more of us recognize heaven is where we are.  The "kingdom" of Christian belief is already here.  Nirvana is already present.  We are there.   Realizing that truth is another story and making it evident in our daily lives is an even larger package to unwrap.  Where do we begin?  How can we make the world we want to see real all around us?  The reality begins one of us at a time.  We find compassion and acceptance for ourselves within our own spirits, and while we're looking for it, we give it to others.  We look for the good and the beautiful in each person we meet, and we find it reflected in ourselves.  Things work that way.  What we wish to see around us is what we must also see in ourselves.  What we want the world to be is what we ourselves must be first.

We make peace in the world by being at peace within our own spirits, by accepting our broken beings and loving who we are for all the characteristic strengths and weaknesses we own.  Then we drive out to work in the early morning traffic and make peace happen in our world by letting someone waiting at a side street into the long, unending line of traffic.  We open the office door for the hurrying employee laden with lap-top, briefcase, lunch bag and coffee.  We make a mistake and own it without criticizing ourselves for not being perfect all the time. 

It sounds too simple?   Try letting someone from that waiting line of cars at the side street join into the traffic in front of you.  Then watch in your rearview mirror at the same thing happening here and there behind you.   Hold the elevator for someone rushing into the building and watch someone else pick up dropped belongings and open other doors.  Smile at a stranger and see his or her face light up.  Little things do make a very big difference when practiced consistently.  These things tend to build on themselves.  Little acts of kindness, small moments of accepting responsibility for some community need...these build into a more communal consciousness.  Someone has to start and keep doing it.  Playing with a tired, cranky child in line at the grocery store lightens the mother's load for a moment so she can complete her purchases and take that child home for lunch and a nap.   Waiting quietly while the traffic builds up behind and the slow, aged or infirm person crosses the street in front of your car and giving that person a smile and a wave as you go on your way brings a smile to many other faces than that one person.  It spreads and it builds.

First, you make a roux.