ADD and the rush

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

Just over one week ago, early on Friday morning my wife decided it would be a great time to fall and break her foot. She was placed in a good-sized cast reaching halfway to her knee and is basically hobbled for the next six weeks.

But enough about her. I had to step into the breach for just about everything but her personal needs. Cleaning the house ,or at least keeping the dirt and clutter from overwhelming us, fetching stuff all the time and especially making the meals. Two days ago was Friday and I had to get ready for Shabbos.

Surprisingly, here in Israel there are all sorts of places to buy ready made meals ,and not too expensive either.

But no. I like preparing food and I’m not bad at it if I say so myself. So I decided to make the three main courses, those being chicken, cholent and soup for myself, the missus and our son. And my cooking involves braising and sautéed onions. i don’t just dump stuff into a pot .

Despite the calls to just order take-out, or it’s not worth effort or all the rest, I did it. The reviews were pretty good overall. And from the time the soup reached a full boil until I was cleaning up was one and one quarter hours.

But still the question remains, why go that route?

Then I realized that I enjoyed it. The rush of working under the gun, of planning, preparing and actually getting it all done is something I’ve missed since I retired. The empty schedule, slowly being being filled but still allowing too many large gaps, it goes against my nature. And that nature includes ADD something that has influenced my life without my understanding it until just a few years ago. Either the novelty of meeting people, or reading a fascinating idea or taking ingredients and crafting a meal of them especially with time constraints, these things and others give me a rush, a charge that not much else can yield. And no, I’m not telling you what else.

Photo by Nikki Normandeau on Unsplash

But my latest project , translating my book into Hebrew also gives me that rush in many of those ways.

Life is fun again.

My wife should be fully mobile again in about six weeks.

Cheers