Vanilla Sugar
A friend of mine past away a few weeks ago. We had worked at Oxfam America together. She was one of the most respectable people I’ve ever met. She made time for everyone in her life. She saw the whole world as her village. It got me thinking…
I took a test with some girlfriends of mine –a true values test. It determines the four qualities you need in order to feel like yourself at any point in time in any situation in your life. I thought my true values would turn out to be some profound “save the world” type of thing. Nope. They were:
- Be amused
- Feel good
- Be connected
- Learn
How’s that for profound? I guess I just want to smile and be connected to people. Daniel Gilbert said in an interview in the New York Times that “the best predictor of human happiness is human relationships and the amount of time that people spend with family and friends.” Simple.
When I am happy, I am myself. So, I had to think about why being happy can be hard to do sometimes. I need to recognize that if I become unhappy, I need to spend more time with friends and family. I also need to do things that teach me something and that genuinely make me feel good.
One of those things is making sweet, sweet..vanilla sugar 
A good friend of mine, Chef Jenn, shared a generous supply of vanilla beans with me and told me to keep them in sugar. The beans stay fresh for longer and stand up easily in their sweet surroundings, and the sugar gets a lot of loving from the vanilla. Also, the warm vanilla scent makes anyone “feel good.” Lovely pictures, too.
Love this!
Thanks so much!