why i bake bread

when i was young i thought life would be like jogging . . . pleasantly paced, taking in the scenery, setting down the years like footsteps one by one with a pleasant little bounce. oh sure, i remember daddy telling me, "nothing in life is easy". but i didn't think that what he really meant is nearly everything is more like a trek up a 10,000 footer. which is what i eventually discovered.

so that's one of the reasons why i bake.
baking makes for a smooth stride on a sometimes-chaotic-sometimes-slippery course that's peppered with a few unexpected potholes.
       through the process of mixing, kneading, folding, stretching a bread dough, i can usually turn out the tension and anxiety that comes along with one of life's titanic-sized puzzles . . .  along with soft-on-the-inside, crunchy-on-the-outside loaves of homemade comfort. and the fermenting, rising and proofing dispenses calm rests between starts.      
       give me a problem to solve, an issue to settle, or a design project to concept, and i will stir together some yeast and flour and bake a solution, resolution or an angle to take. and then we can break some bread.

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