Daydreaming

As I mentioned before, I find cooking to be a therapeutic activity. And there are parts of it that, because they’re monotonous and repetitive and don’t require our full attention, induce us to a wonderful state of daydreaming, when we can let our imagination fly to wherever it wishes to go; peeling potatoes or shelling peas, for example, or stirring a deliciously-smelling pot of marmalade or custard waiting for it to reach the right consistency, come to mind.

Letting your mind wander freely is a very pleasant experience and it can be productive as well. We can let any fantasy or idea quietly take over our thoughts; we can imagine ourselves in any part of the world, we can have long conversations with whomever we please, and explore any possibility there is, or even if it doesn’t exist. Sometimes I’ve let my mind travel to the paintings I will someday get around to painting and I’ve been able to find solutions that weren’t obvious to me while I was consciously looking at the drawing itself.

The only problem I can find with this is the fact that we might be so entertained with our musing that we might go on and peel countless potatoes or shell too many peas or stir our pots until our marmalade or sauce reaches a brick-like consistency, in which case, we’ll simply eat more mashed potatoes and our dessert will have a dubious appearance… which is nothing compared to the joy of daydreaming!