After my parents got divorced — when I was about 11 — my dad lived alone for a number of years. One of the things I always appreciated about him was the fact that he would always cook himself a regular dinner, every night.
Sure, he might make it easy on himself by buying a package of four pork chops and then have pork chops and green beans for four days in a row, but he always cooked himeself a proper meal.
As I was thinking about this, I remembered that my auntie — about whom I have written fondly, on many occasions — also cooked herself proper dinners, even though she lived alone for the last 30-odd years of her life.
From where I am sitting, it only makes sense.
After all, why should we treat ourselves worse when we're alone? Do we not feel worthy of kindness, unless other people are watching?
In turn, this reminded me that during the years I spent living by myself following the end of my first marriage, I always cooked for myself.
There were a few other things in life I "didn't bother" with, but having proper meals was not one of them. It always surprised my friends, most of whom confessed that they would likely just eat frozen TV dinners, or something "out of a box."
I actually found that making food was a great way to pull myself out of a funk... and there were plenty of days on which I didn't have energy to get up and deal with life!
I expect people ahave different priorities. For me, my stomach always would speak very loudly to me, if I didn't treat it kindly. In fact, the only time during a prolonged period of stress that I developed a stomach ulcer was during a brief period where I just didn't have time to cook, so I resorted to take-away dinners... with that unfortunate side effect.
Tradition true, I cooked "real food" this evening, even though I am home alone for a few days — Mrs. Denmarkguy headed to seattle to hang out with our daughter and the grandbaby for a few days. I am not going to live on random leftovers, potato chips and ham sandwiches in her absence!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!
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Created at 2025.06.26 00:30 PDT
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