Simplicity.

I've had lots going on in my life lately, and none of it has been conducive to spending hours in the kitchen (relaxing or otherwise). Still, I found myself in need of eating at home this evening - or maybe it was just a need for the comfort of familiar surroundings (even after a pretty damn comfortable trip to Florida this past week). All this struck me late in the evening, so rather than chaining myself to the stove I elected to zip to the market in search of some snacks.

I have to inject here that I continually lament the closing of my favorite Publix on Jonesboro Road. Yes, there are other Publix groceries in the vicinity, but I don't like any of them nearly as well as I liked - no, make that LOVED - my old Publix. Nowadays I usually just hit the Super Target if I'm staying local, but this evening, despite my extreme dislike of Kroger, I gave in to Mark's suggestion to shop there. I must admit Kroger is coming up in the world (but just a little, let's not go crazy with the credit here). They have a new olive bar with a fairly varied little selection of unusual olives and a few other things as well - it's not exactly Whole Foods, mind you, but it's pretty good shakes for Kroger.

We snagged some Peppadews, large green olives (maybe Spanish? I'm normally pretty sure of what I'm getting, but their signage was severely lacking so I'm guessing here) which were perfectly brined, not too salty, some finger hot peppers, dolmades, gigantes, & caviar. When we got in from shopping, we poured ourselves some wine & homemade beer & snacked outside while we smoked chicken livers on the Green Egg & discussed the many merits of The Road Less Traveled, a book which I think EVERYONE over 30 should have already read at LEAST once.

As those who follow my Facebook rantings already know, I'm reading this book for the third time in 20 years. Even though it was originally published in 1978, it hasn't lost its edge. Peck posits that there are three choices available to us during our time here: we can choose to live fully, we can choose to live less than fully, or we can choose not to live at all. Me? I'm choosing to live more fully these days, and the budding knowledge that a full life is a life full of pain gives me an even greater appreciation for pausing to enjoy the simple things.