As a chemist long ago, I worked with formulas, using calibrated containers to create compounds, and instruments to assay, desiccate, and weigh them precisely. Predictably, everyone using the formulas correctly achieved the same results.
But when cooking, I start with a concept, a recipe - which may be merely an idea or a list of ingredients to start with - and then I make it my own. In rice pudding, for example, I substitute fruit for the sugar and add my favorite spices. It comes out different every time, but I always enjoy it.
Recipes are adaptable, a creation of the cook. In any good recipe for healing, you are the "cook." Starting with an idea, you can omit or replace "ingredients," and add new ones, to make it yours.
There's no formula for healing, because everyone's pain and needs and dreams and hopes are unique. Life coaching needs to be about you, because it’s your life, to live and enjoy your way.
Hi, Samantha, your post spoke to me. Your message is freeing. :)
ReplyDeleteCurrently I'm writing another memoir about three years in South America when I was a young married woman with two little kids. It was a dangerous place and time, and I struggled a lot with fear, and basically whether or not I could trust God to take care of us. Was God trustworthy? If so, would I trust Him? While I read your Recipe for Healing, it occurred to me that the way we seek God and relate to Him doesn't have to be a formula or recipe to be followed exactly. My struggle to trust God and go forward with courage didn't need to be exactly like anyone else's struggle to do so. Thanks for the freedom you have given me to know that's OK!
Linda, I'm sorry I've been unable to respond sooner. Your memoir promises to be very interesting and inspiring. Life seems to be all about learning to trust, doesn't it! To trust God, trust ourselves, and hold fast to the courage to move forward. It sounds like the part of the recipe that spoke most to you was the one that says, "Make it your own." I'm so glad that you understood that when you needed it most, back there in South America. Each of us is on our own path, and yet we are all connected in this way. What you did was more than OK, it was the right way for you! I send you my best wishes . . . please let me know when your book is published.
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