COOKING

Peeling, chopping, cutting, mincing, slicing,
measuring, pouring, stirring, poaching,
bubbling, frying, turning, simmering, serving.
These are the words I cook with.
They are all motion, all process.

I know as I create this meal
there is another cooking going on.
It, too, is all motion, all process —
an inner transformation.
Help me to give myself away
as easily as this carrot, this new potato.
I want my layers to peel away like the onion’s.
I want to be as empty and clean
as the universe in a sweet green pepper
with its white star seeds.

I want. I want. In the heart of Your will
help me to give up wanting!
I am so full of urgency, expectation, image,
I make myself spiritually hungry.

You are here,
therefore, there is everything to receive.

Gunilla Norris, Being Home: A Book of Meditations, Bell Tower, 1991, 62-63.