Chili Spaghetti, an Evite and Cracked Pots

New thing of the day (3) - had spaghetti noodles with chili, sent out our first Evite, and made a New Year's Resolution.

First off, the New Year's resolution. I'm not a fan of New Year's resolutions because I think you should make resolutions all year, not just New Year's, but I suppose a New Year is a good place to start. Anyway - in reflecting, I realize I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I often do NOT try or do things, for fear of failure. This seems weird, but it's true. I don't like to try new recipes until I've seen someone do it and feel I could do it deliciously. I'm very hard on myself in general things and don't want to try if I don't think I can do it awesomely. I resist things, because I'm afraid of not being amazing at them.

Anyway - so I sorta made a resolution, to be imperfect. My goal in 2011, which won't be difficult, is to fail over and over again. To be imperfect. To embrace the flaws and in a spiritual sense, give up perfection. I think my husband told me of some architect or artist, who purposefully creates flaws in their work, because they believe only God is perfect and to create flaws to honor that. I sorta like the fable of the cracked pot - get it? :) At the bottom of the blog is one version of the story. Anyway, I just think I really need to try harder to be imperfect. To fail, to try, to go, to fail and maybe get it right once in awhile. Don't know. I'll let you know how this imperfection style goes.

Ok so next new thing - had some leftover chili. An Italian coworker gave me some pasta noodles from his house and as he said "he was sick of pasta". So decided to combine the two into chili spaghetti. It's not such a stretch since chili is somewhat tomato based. Turned out DELISH! Yum Yum :) The spaghetti was the perfect texture al dente too - so I just heat the chili and added the cold spaghetti. Yum! :) 

Another new thing, decided to finally host a house party. First one. ACK! We've delayed having one because I didn't feel the house was ready, but also, because I'm shy about hosting one. Truthfully it's a little terrifying. I have very high expectations of what a great party should be, and I want my house and party to be great. Unfortunately we don't have a great house, we have a good one, and I'm hoping we all have enough room and people have fun. Truthfully most house parties we've gone to - it wasn't the house that made it awesome, but the people. So I'm hoping that's what works at our place. Plus the food, music, guests, etc. I don't know. I'm very nervous, but I hope we do OK. We scheduled it later in the month since we'll be busy with travels, family and school. Oddly enough, I dreaded scheduling or setting a date for a party, but once I did, I was looking forward to hosting and getting ready for it. I hope it's big enough or nice enough for people. I'm not really sure if it is, but we'll take the chance. If it bombs, well, here's to imperfection!

Anyway - here's that story :) Cheers :) And Happy New Year!

The Cracked Pot -- a Chinese Fable

A water bearer in China had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck. One pot had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After 2 years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream:
"I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house." The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?

"That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I planted flower seeds on your side of the path. Every day while we walk back, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Moral: We're a bunch of cracked pots. Each of us has our own unique flaws. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are, and look for the good in them.