"Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it." ~ Harry Emerson Fosdick
Instead of starting with a quote, I looked through photos for today's spark. This eggplant is not among the prettiest pictures I've featured but it's the one that called out, "Me. me. Pick me," when I looked through my photo files.
Why this? And how might eggplant relate to LIVING THE TWELVE GIFTS?
I remembered a blog about releasing bitterness--from eggplant and from our hearts. If you wish, you can read that re-posting below. I wrote it many years ago.
For now....
TO RELEASE BITTERNESS
From hearts: Love is the answer. Of course, isn't it always? But truly, love heals hurting hearts. And bitterness often begins with hurt. Compassion and forgiveness soothe the hurt and start the releasing.
For eggplant: Salt is the answer. But it seems to me that eggplants need love in their preparation too in order to release bitterness and become delicious.
Today, remember eggplant. If you feel any bitterness building, let's it go.
With love and compassion,
Charlene
Blogging on...
Eggplant. It can be so delicious, layered in Eggplant Parmesan, Moussaka, and Ratatouille and all by itself, grilled, baked, or fried. Or, it can be bitter.
But, that bitterness can be removed, quite easily, too. While there are variations on how that’s best done, the key seems to be salt. Salt draws the bitterness out. Some say to slice, salt, and press the eggplant. Others recommend soaking it in a salty brine.
We can experience ourselves, our lives, as delicious.
And we can know bitterness. Bitterness increases in eggplants as they age and get stale. Perhaps, in a way, that is what sometimes happens to us.
We had an uncle in our family who grew more and more bitter as he aged. One day, when my husband and I visited that uncle, although he was eighty years old, he seemed younger than the last time we had seen him. Something had changed. He looked happy and healthy, too. When we commented about how good he looked, he said, “I got rid of the bitterness.”
“How did you do that?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “It’s just gone.”
But then he added, “Some things that I blamed others for… well, let’s just say, I had a part in everything that happened in my life. I’ve forgiven others. I’ve forgiven myself.”
Whenever I notice bitterness growing in me, I think of that uncle. And I think of eggplant. I don’t want bitterness to grow in me. Bitterness hurts. If only a briny bath in Epsom
Salt would simply draw the bitterness out.
Wishing you deliciousness!
(From January 27, 2013)
