Thinking My Way Out of the Bag

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I planted Romano beans this year—the fat juicy ones you see in the mix of beans above. Can you tell I have a favorite? Well, so did the slugs when my darlings sprouted. I then grabbed a six-pack of Kentucky Pole Beans starts to fill in the gap.

I still favor those succulent Romanos. But some bean dishes favor a mix of varieties, so we’re okay. I found such a recipe in the pages of Bon Appetit recently, and it changed my world.

Green beans steamed, green beans sautéed, green beans stewed or in vinaigrette. I believed these to be the all the contents in the bag of green bean options.

Did you ever notice we function like that? We go along, unaware of our limiting beliefs, doing and being the way we know how to. Mostly, it works well enough. But sometimes we sit in utter frustration, when there’s some answer we can’t quite reach. We don’t know how to find our way out of the paper bag. We can’t see it. The sky, the Earth—it’s all bag-colored. We can’t imagine life outside of that.

Thank goodness the Universe keeps knocking at our door. I’ll tell you something about my joy practice. It keeps me listening for that knock with fresh ears daily. I meditate to open and uplift my mind and heart. I intentionally view my life through the best feeling lens. (Example: “Slugs ate all my bean starts,” translates to “I fed the ecosystem on that one. The coons will be eating bean-stuffed escargot tonight.” That latter version tickles me.)

This practice of shifting my perspective and looking for the gifts does make me a happier human. But there’s more. My brain doesn’t spend the bulk of its time locked down in survival mode. I move from the laser-focus of survival-thinking to the lantern-focus of childlike discovery.

In this state, I discovered Green Beans Gribiche (pronounced: grih-beesh), printed quietly in a mess of recipes without pictures. Green Beans Gribiche. I could sit here and say that five times for fun. Couldn’t you? But there’s more! This recipe whips some hard-boiled egg yolk into the vinaigrette, making it thick and creamy. I’d never heard of such a thing! The rest of the gently hard-boiled eggs are quartered and tossed with the beans, red onions, and capers.

Wowsers. This recipe showed me my paper bag. I had such a limited view of green beans, and I didn’t even know it! Now, I’m free. Well, this version of free. In truth, I just stepped into a bigger bag. But I’m cool with that. The daily unveiling of life is a wonder to me. Sometimes it’s comfortable and sometimes, admittedly, not.

This time, stepping out of the bag is jubilant. I’ve made this recipe three times, and if I could, I’d send some to you as an attachment. Here’s my best effort, a share of the recipe.

When have you discovered the limitations of your thinking and beliefs? Better yet—when was it a joy?