My Sourdough Era

I am hoping I started a new tradition in my household, one that my children will pass on for generations to come. It was a huge hit back in 2020. It was an essential at a point in time when fear strung through the minds of most-afraid we’d be “shut down”. Sourdough is a great staple to have. As long as you have flour and water you are good to go!

My sourdough era started about a month ago. I ran into a massive creative block and found a way to regain my thoughts-through making sourdough. In all honesty it was the last thing I would ever think to do. I needed to regain who I was after resigning from my corporate job. It’s been a few months now and I am slowly getting back to myself. I let so much of who I am go. It’s very easy to do when you are not doing what you truly love and you are living in survival mode on a daily basis.

I was on instagram and I stumbled across a woman who goes by the name “That Sourdough Gal”. She explained how sourdough was like therapy. Her videos were really inspiring. A few short days after that a friend of mine in our “book club bitches” club texted about sourdough. Theresa, I am forever grateful to you! I was at her house that afternoon picking up a starter. The synchronicities were all there right in front of me. I came home and fed Lucy-Lu(yes, she has a name). She has been on my counter creating beautiful smelly discard and the most amazing loaves of bread since.

Sourdough has literally become a superpower for me. Sourdough bakers need to learn how to create an environment to maintain a living host of bacteria and yeast in a jar. It literally just sits there. It sounds so unbelievably gross, I know! When this task is mastered and you start understanding what is truly involved you link it to a deep understanding about how everything is dependent on the starters environmental factors. When this crazy mixture of yeast and bacteria evolves it is a genuine act of creation, created by us- a superpower! It keeps on giving and giving. It’s truly amazing what 70 grams of starter will form into after just a few hours.

My first few loaves were okay. They didn’t really fit the criteria of being spectacular, but they were edible. It took quite a number of loaves in order for me to really nail it to where my entire family has grown to enjoy it. I even started getting creative. I made a butter cinnamon and sugar swirl loaf. The swirl came out amazing! I have to thank all the instagram bakers for that one. I was inspired by how easy they made it all look. I decided to give it a go. The best thing about it is that no loaf is the same, but each time it was created it was created from the same starter with the right amount of balance.

As the month went by and I was so carefully taking care of my starter and making sure it was perfectly fermented, I realized something. I started to see and compare this to my life and how my will to stay focused and consistent came so deeply into play here. Every day my starter needed the right balance to ferment. I know it sounds really silly. Its true. Things need time to come into its perfection. I was always, and still am in many ways very quick to give up when things do not happen quick enough. I have the best example to share. This past July I published my first eBook, “A Small Town Girl”. It took me almost 3 years to write. A few family members purchased the book. That was about it. Instead of sticking to writing and staying on course I gave it up. Writers block was holding me back. My negative talk was holding me back. What did I do? I went back to doing something that also never worked-started to build my Reiki and Life Coaching business. My life becomes a cycle of repeating things that do not work.

I found myself thinking a lot as I was stretching and folding and kneading. I had visions of what was lost in my life. The creative block was me. I was blocking myself from moving on and doing what truly sets my soul on fire-write. Writing comes from my heart. Once I get started there is no stopping me. I started asking myself some questions along the way. The biggest question was- Why do you have to focus on writing your next book? Start blogging again! And, keep it up! “A Small Town Girl” was not suppose to be a book. It started out as a blog. That blog turned into a story. My story turned into my first self published eBook.

Balance is key to life. We must recognize where our life is completely out of balance and try our hardest to fix it. Even if it takes time. When our life becomes unbalanced there’s no room for it to ferment, just like my sourdough starter. Just like a sourdough starter we need the right ratio of the things in our life that make us whole in order to keep on thriving.