Nonjudgmental Bake Time

Baking is an underrated miracle. It’s amazing, really. Just think about it…

You can combine flour with sugar and butter, crack in an egg, add leavener, a pinch of spice, maybe some chocolate chips – expose all that to high heat for a relatively short period of time and – BOOM. You’ve suddenly got cake. Something that looks and tastes incredible – vastly different, but far richer than any of the independent ingredients used to make it.

Now, I’m no world-class baker, but recently I’ve experienced deeper appreciation for the metaphor that baking provides in relation to new connections/experiences.

When trying out any new recipe – whether that’s specific to cooking or baking, training, work, relationships, etc. – the compulsion to add more, to work harder or longer in order to reach new, successful outcomes is all-too-tempting. (Sidenote: how would you know what “successful” is in this new venture, anyway?) As we already know, though – much like you can’t bypass the necessary heat exposure that 27-35 minutes at 350 provides in transforming batter to bread – applying the perspective that testing any new recipe requires hands-off-stress-testing can be useful.

We’ve talked about it before and I’ll say it again – part of what makes human beings so unique is our ability to observe ourselves. The paradox to this capacity, however, includes an ability to ruminate in the past and also feel anxious about the future.

So what does this mean with respect to quelling the familiar, expected impatience often activated during the bake time of a new recipe?

A simple consideration: once it’s in the oven (literally, or figuratively) remove expectation around how a thing you’ve never made before will turn out. Instead, how about celebrating the fact that you were open to trying something new?! Uncertainty may be inherent, but judging the process is certainly optional.

All I’m saying is this: Give it time to bake, okay?