The Truth Is (p. 2)

The truth is you’re already a cook.
Nobody teaches you anything,
but you can be touched, you can be awakened.
Put down the book and start asking,
“What have we here?” 

Though recipes abound, for soups and salads,
breads and entrees, for getting enlightened
and perfecting the moment, still
the unique flavor of Reality
appears in each breath, each bite,
each step, unbounded and undirected. 

Each thing just as it is,
What do you make of it?

Working On How I Work (p. 22)

I do this chore
not just to get it
out of the way,
But as the way
to make real
kind connected mind. 

May I awaken to what
these ingredients offer,
and may I awaken best I can
energy, warmth, imagination,
this offering of heart and hand.

At Home, At Last (p. 122)

Rolling out this dough
I take the air out of my sails
and float calmly on the seas,
not knowing how
things will turn out. 

At last it is okay to be here.

Rolling, folding, turning, shaping,
seeing, smelling, touching, tasting,
Buoyantly I abide in this making
of food, this ceaseless labor
of feeding. 

I make myself at home
in a universe
not of my choosing.