I will probably want to stick a recipe in here somewhere. Especially since New Year's Day typically presents an opportunity to eat a particular something, with the belief that it will influence your luck throughout the next year. For those of us who grew up in Midwestern/ Southern U.S., black-eyed peas would be that magic dish that will hopefully ensure some good times in the next twelve months. Whatever. You don't need to give me a reason to eat black-eyed peas, I love them. Tell me it'll bring me good luck, and I might end up eating seconds or thirds. You know. Just to hedge the ole' bets.
The time is upon us for such a dish, but instead of going to my favorite black eyed peas recipes, I decide I want to switch things up. Do something different this time. To the internet! All of my searching left my mouth watering and my brain noticing that one word kept popping up again and again: Thyme.
Whoa. I think mama just got her blog back.
Did you get a chill? Because I did. I put on a hat and it went away. Anyway, thyme, it seems, goes with the timely little bean. Every recipe I found called for thyme. You get it right? Time, thyme? Homophones, yo. What a perfect dish for me to make today and eat tomorrow, because, on New Year's Eve, I can't help but be contemplative about this time marker, and how it seems to arrive sooner each time.
Here's a little tale from way back when. When I was about 7, I got my first invitation to a slumber party. I clearly remember the date printed on the little card and that it was three days away, which seemed like FOREVER. Eons passed as I clutched that little card and compared it to the calendar, looking at what seemed to be a frozen clock. Time didn't just drag, it sagged and stretched tortuously. I don't even recall anything about that slumber party, just the agonizing wait that preceded it.
Now, as I anticipate putting the household Christmas decorations away, when three days feels like the blink of an eye, I am somewhat comforted by the fact that time flies more and more, the older you get. Celebrations of next year will arrive faster than they did last year. And no, this is not because I am a Time Lord.
See, forget gray hair and wrinkles. You know you're getting older when it feels like time is speeding up. What used to feel like forever is nothing. A year? That's nothing. <-Not something I would have said ten years ago, when a year was a larger percentage of the time I've been walking this earth.
Time, for us peoples, is relative. That means a day is not a day and a year is not a year. As far as we're concerned, these things exist in a relationship with us, because we obey the laws of time ourselves. When we are first born, a day is equal to our whole life. At the end of your first year, 365 days = 100 % of your time here. All the living you've ever known.
A year later, 365 days drops down to only half of your life span, but that still feels like a significant chunk of time. Like half an eternity.
As the years go by, each one diminishes in comparison to your time here, which really does alter how you perceive that span of days. It feels like something you're seeing from farther and farther away. It never changes size, even though to you, it appears to be shrinking.
This can make us good elders for generations behind us, as we age; because we become capable of thinking more realistically about five years from now, ten years from now, generations away. These notions are less abstract, and more approachable. It's like seeing more and more of a mountain range with every day. I, personally, find this journey calming, even though I already don't feel like there are enough hours in the day. I have so much living in the moment to do before the rapidly approaching Christmas 2014.
Like eat these delicious, lucky Stewed Black-eyed Peas.
