When I was a very young girl, I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandmother.
I loved being with her. She truly hung the moon in my eyes.
I didn’t know until after she passed away in 2020 that she was a 2/4 Manifestor with the 12-22.
And, OMG, did she initiate me into quite a few things in my life.
We would go on fun trips together and she would introduce me to all sorts of interesting people.
She would buy me the “cool” clothes for school and tell me mesmerizing stories from her life.
She taught me how to game the stoplight system in downtown Raleigh and Durham and gave me the intel on all the superstitions.
But, of all the things she initiated, my favorite was the love of cooking.
One of the first things she taught me how to make was pancakes.
We used these little plastic tubs of pancake mix to which you just added water. You’d shake, shake, shake to mix it all together and let it sit while the pan got hot.
With her long and painted fingernails, she’d flick water into the pan to make sure it was ready.
Then, we’d pour the batter into the pan and wait patiently for the bubbles to start popping on the surface before flipping.
Still to this day, despite my various diet restrictions due to immune system stuff, pancakes will go down in history as one of my favorite foods.
And no matter what has been happening in the circumstances of my life, I’ve loved cooking.
Sometimes, though, it felt really, really stressful.
The kitchen felt chaotic and nothing would turn out right. I’d make a huge, overwhelming mess that I wouldn’t even want to force my worst enemy to clean up.
It took me a long time to figure out why that kept happening. It never went down like that in my grandmother’s kitchen.
At some points along the way, I figured this cooking thing wasn’t for me.
But the kitchen kept luring me back in.
I wanted to dance with pots and pans. I wanted to flow with the flavors. I wanted to shop for delicious ingredients and prepare them with love.
Today, that’s what cooking looks like for me.
Sure, sometimes, it is just about getting a meal on the table.
But, more often than not, there is a Grace, a flow, a dance that unfolds and I’m taken back to those happy times making pancakes with my grandma.
And do you want to know what transformed the chaos, stress, and mess into a beautiful dance?
It was a simple strategy, and it changed everything.
It’s called mise en place, and I learned about it on the Food Network.
I don’t remember who, but someone said:
“A recipe is a prep list.”
That one sentence blew my mind. It completely clarified why cooking sometimes felt like a mosh pit instead of a Graceful ballet.
From that moment on, I began by prepping my ingredients, even when it meant dirtying lots of little bowls. I read recipes all the way through a few times to get a lay of the land. If there were lots of different parts of a meal that require delicate timing, I plan everything out in advance.
These days, one of my favorite ways to spend the weekend is to kick things off by chatting with my husband about what we’d like to make for dinner. Then, we hit up the thrift store or antique circuit and go to the grocery store on the way home.
At dinner time, we get in the kitchen together and cook. He is my sous chef and we listen to nice music.
We usually dine over a movie or a few episodes of Good Mythical Morning from the week.
It is truly delightful.
And it’s the mise en place that makes that possible. When it comes to cooking, it’s the strategy that turns the process into a dance, a flow, and a natural rhythm that just works.
That’s how our Human Design strategy works, as well.
We create more ease, flow, and natural rhythm when we follow our strategy (and authority). We meet much less resistance and the process of life becomes more satisfying, successful, peaceful, and delightful.
By waiting to respond, Generators focus their energy on what they LOVE doing and generate more love, inspiration, and vibrancy in the world.
By waiting for recognition and invitation, Projectors guide others into more flow and success.
By initiating their Creative urges, Manifestors bring new ways of thinking, doing, and being into the world.
By waiting for a full lunar cycle, Reflectors discover their people, place, and lifestyle and show us, through the sacred mirror, how to live with deeper integrity.
Imagine a world that is full of love, inspiration, vibrancy, flow, success, innovation, and personal integrity.
Our energy is our unique contribution to the world.
Whether it’s frustration or satisfaction.
Whether it’s bitterness or success.
Whether it’s anger or peace.
Whether it’s disappointment or surprise.
We might as well choose the path of least resistance.