Potatoes Provide a Way to See Things Differently

For week nine in Scribbled Lives, we were prompted with JRR Tolkien. Anything to do with his writing was open fodder. My husband and I recently binged The Lord of the Rings movies, and my husband is a foodie. So these words from Samwise Gangee rang rather true to form.

Po-Tay-Toes…boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew…what we need is a few good taters!

I actually did another version first, which got over worked and a bit muddled. And when I was honest with myself, I didn’t like it enough to share it…so I did this version. The piece felt a bit lopsided to me, so I added the quote below on the left side:

If more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold…it would be a much merrier world.

– JRR Tolkien

Gotta love that a prompt from JRR Tolkien can be applied to foodies everywhere. My lesson this week was that we can indeed be inspired by anything, in any way, if we allow ourselves the freedom to see things differently. I wanted to “see” JRR Tolkien in a different way, other than dragons and hobbits; potatoes provided that venue, and I jumped in full force.

Having a problem getting inspired by a task you have to do, a job, your bedroom layout, or even cleaning out your closet? What if you turned that task on its ear and looked at it from a different perceptive? What can you read, see, hear, smell, or even taste that will bring joy to an unrelated task? In my case it was potatoes, maybe for you it is a color, a favorite snack, or eating a charcuterie board? Being open to inspiration means never judging, limiting or even going with the flow. Some of our best opportunities go whizzing by when we toss them aside due to convention or living within the expected.

Be willing to let go of your first attempt, to make way for your best work. Ya’ never know what will strike your imagination and lead you to the fabulous solution from that boring, cluttered closet. All it takes is a little work, a bit of openness…and maybe a few taters! Dare to believe that potatoes provide a way to see things differently!