The Cure for Discouragement: a Good Meal

February 14, 2015

Though we can't necessarily fix all the problems that led to our discouragement, we can offset our poor spirits by preparing a good meal.

Feeling discouraged is part of the human experience. Defeat, failure and disappointment are staples in my life because they go hand-in-hand with taking risks, and the result is an intimate knowledge of discouragement.

A great many things can trigger discouragement: chronic pain, inability to lose weight despite cranking up the fitness routine, a financial setback, loss of an account or job, a dismal launch of a business, a C grade when you needed a B, failure of a good-faith effort to improve a relationship, a poor decision made in haste--the list is endless.

Fortunately, so are the cures--a good meal. Though we can't necessarily fix all the problems that led to our discouragement, we can offset our poor spirits by preparing a good meal.

Here is another set of recent Hawaii-family meals--and desserts, of course....

But before we get to the photos, let's pause for a few words of wisdom about success and failure, which is so often the cause of discouragement:

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." (Winston Churchill)

"Where there is ruin, there is hope for treasures." (Rumi)

"Success: To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." (Ralph Waldo Emerson, submitted by J.P. Bahner)



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Tamago is Japanese for egg.



lau-laus from Pete's Belly Bustazs, Hilo.



A pan of enchiladas being assembled for a party. Here's the recipe for Homemade Enchilada Sauce



Local residents are allowed to pick a quart of ohelo berries each on federal lands.



The harvested ohelo berries from three of us.



The ohelo berries topping a cream-cheese pie filling--yum.



Same filling, with fresh blueberry topping.

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