Canning may sound like a strange path out of the dark woods of despair, but all the other ways, from Prosac to suicide, are really hard on your body. And therapy - breathing new life into the story every week - doesn't always help. When you're really depreessed, you have to do something that takes you out of the drama, that makes you detach from the big world and become king of a tiny, controllable world, like one of berries and Ball jars. Just because this last thing didn't work out and your heart is smashed, it doesn't mean that all of you dreams will end in a big mess.
Canning is a whole world of a thing to do. It requires that you get out of your head. it's a Zen thing. You cannot be wondering about your inadequacies and how they drove Bob off and be making jelly. You'll wind up with big, cylindrical jujubes. You have to be in the moment, paying attention. You boil and sterilize stuff, you time things, you measure and take temperatures; you create an orderly little world. Unlike what has happened to you, these steps take you to what you planned on. You become a person in a world in which things turn out the way you thought they would.
- Debby Bull
Blue Jelly -Love Lost and the Lessons of Canning
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4 comments:
I like this! (I want to learn how to can!). Music is this for me.
This is why I don't can. I can't step away from my world long enough to focus on anything that requires that much attention to detail! (OK, sewing is an exception - probably why it's so therapeutic for me!)
I think we all have our 'canning' experiences. There is something immensely satisfying about seeing something you canned (or sewed or baked or ....) and know that it came out just the way it was supposed to...and that you did it!
I have always found canning to be very theraputic...especially when the kids are outside and not biting my ankles, lol! Kim
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