WHAT’S COOKING?

     My brand new cottage ohana is surrounded by trees, outside my living room window is a hanging banana blossom at its peak, and adjacent are tangerine fruits and foliages expectantly perfumed coexisting in the soil with tear drop-shaped avocados the size of small bowling balls (the creamiest variety, I'm told, according to my local plant-grower friend, Rick the Duck). Behind my bedroom window is a massive mango tree adorned with decorative light bulbs, and at night always looks festive. I moved here this weekend, it happened so fast it's like a thunderbolt blessing, as if Thor was saying: You got your wish cook poet, welcome home.

     And it sure feels it. My dwelling is its own structure-little blue house tucked quietly behind the main residence, my former flat with Mrs. Cole was upstairs on the second floor of her house, but this time is a sweet independence I have a cabin in the deep woods. And my books are my only furniture. But this pot you see in the picture (with a lilikoi on top) was from a kind soul I stayed with temporarily in transition to my cottage and as parting gift handed over two sauce pans with handles, when I was staying with him I boiled my water and transfered them in glass bottles when cooled down, he was thoughtful of my "kitchen practice" and I appreciated the gesture on my leaving with this hand-me-down gift.

     I went to Whole Foods this morning at store opening (7am) and raided their aisles, filled my cart with vegan food overflow - from coconut vanilla bean yogurt to fresh-cut collard greens I requested the produce guy (Eddie) to do for me and was glad to, no stems, please, just rough chop the leaves and he disappeared in the back; to cauliflower rice not instant to tap-poured upcountry kombucha strawberry ginger dispensed in a nine dollar mason jar. I was mindful of my lack of cutlery and cookwares (except for this saucepan large enough to boil vegetables and potatoes), and that's exactly what's cooking in it right now: Okinawa sweet potatoes in turmeric tea - my lunch for later when they cool down, and I will spread myself on the vast hardwood floor in my empty-of-furnishings new home - and love my space - emotionally filling me with happiness, achieving a humble abode out of pure luck to call my own. (Housing on Maui is extremely competitive, to say the least, but my "prayers" were answered). 

     "With a single pot of homey. Look for me, the prophet said, pinning a flower behind his ear. I'll always love you." (Christopher Merrill, Iowa Writer's Workshop)