So sometimes my daily contemplation sort of happens to me, instead of being something I go out of my way to do. Today it happened in my kitchen, a few minutes ago.
Red grapefruit, a couple of bowls, and a ridiculous amount of spoons, along with my trusty digital scale
I decided I wanted some red grapefruit along with the lovely poached egg breakfast sandwich I had made myself. So I get out this big plastic bottle of red grapefruit (not pictured), which had the dregs of the last of its contents, from my fridge. I put the bowl on the scale, and get my first spoon, the one I plan to eat said grapefruit with, out of a drawer, and begin scooping the grapefruit into the bowl, so I can weigh it.
This is so I can get an accurate calorie count, because I journal my food.
Well, this is a pain in the ass. So I decide to trade up to a big old ladle size spoon, to make the job go quicker. This is when the beginnings of my contemplation begin to form.
“Huh,” I think to myself, “part of being mindful is paying attention to how you’re doing things. Because the right eating spoon in this case is not the right serving spoon. I get those last bits of grapefruit into the bowl. It’s not nearly a satisfying amount of grapefruit. So I go grab the new smaller bottle of grapefruit from the fridge.
But of course, the big ladle size spoon doesn’t fit. So I set it aside, laughing. I get a larger-than-the-first-spoon size spoon out, and go to serve out some more grapefruit. Only to find that the bowl has sat on the scale too long, and NOW, it’s switched itself off.
Which means I need a second bowl to weigh empty, and pour the contents of the first bowl into. Ridiculous. But I do it.
So, now I’ve got my bowl of grapefruit. (157 g, if you care. Even if you don’t.)
I go to put the other bowl, the other spoons into the sink to wash them off, and return the grapefruit to the fridge. I zap the barcode of the new bottle, which finds the food in my app quite handily. Except in the app, there’s no setting for measuring in grams.
I begin to laugh.
Based on the estimate on the nutrition label, about serving size, calories, and yes grams of weight, I estimate that the portion I’ve spooned out is roughly .75 cups.
Close enough.
That was when the rest of the contemplation slid home, with a solid THUNK into my brain.
Here’s what I see about this whole silly endeavor:
First, that part of mindful practice is doing the best with what you have. Sometimes, that means you absolutely can tinker with the tools you use, the goals you have, the situation in front of you, to get the most optimal outcome.
But second, that even with all that bending and adapting, sometimes, you just arrive at a circumstance where you give it your best effort, and move on.
That’s not just true in measuring red grapefruit: I think that it’s true universally. It’s true in efforts, relationships, arguments. Because to do otherwise is to become mired in expectation.
Third though, is that no effort, no experience is wasted. Because who I am right now is in part informed by everything I’ve ever done before.
Maybe that means that the next time I spoon out grapefruit, I’ll just eyeball it, and call it good.
I’ll see when I get there.