U.S. Senate Bean Soup
During my time at the U.S. Senate, I stumbled across this recipe from the turn of the century. We prepare this soup when there is an election and I am excited to share it with you. Regardless of where your political affiliations reside, I hope you will find margin to rest and reflect together as a family, perhaps even over a bowl of soup!
When I was in college, I spent a summer interning at the U.S. Senate. It was my second time to Washington D.C and my very first time to work in a political setting. I did not know a soul at Georgetown Law where I lived and it was the first time I had access to a working stove and oven.. Though I packed some basic kitchen items and arrived with an enthusiasm for cooking, in almost no time at all, I discovered how little I knew about meal prep. I relied heavily on the staffers in my office and other interns to show me the ropes but, let’s just say that even with their support, I lacked the culinary tools and skills to cook with so my diet mostly consisted of cereal, sandwiches, and salads. Needless to say, I was delighted when the Senator I interned for invited us to join him for lunch at the Senate cafeteria!
It was there I stumbled across a soup on the menu that had been served everyday in the senate cafeteria since the early 1900s. While I didn’t have any that particular day, we’ve been making this soup every election eve since bringing my daughter to the polls with me in 2012. Over time, it has been a fun thing to look forward to around election season and a gentle way to lean into conversations about history, government, democracy, and freedom. What a privilege it all is. You can find the original recipe for 5 gallons in the link above or use what I have below for about 8-10 servings of soup.
During my time at the U.S. Senate, I had the honor of meeting many folks. Occasionally I got to accompany mine onto the Senate floor to listen to the proceedings of that day. I may not have agreed with every opinion on policy or their legislative agenda, but I respected his commitment to integrity and his willingness to nurture our understanding of how things worked. He was at the time, the Majority Leader and Budget Chair and he emphasized importance of making people feel seen and known with whatever limited time allotted.
Having children in the kitchen is something I absolutely love and hate all at once. I find that it is more fun when I take a few moments to prepare the space as I would a montessori teacher setting up a tray. We set aside a jar of navy beans for littler ones: they can make seed mosaics with them, weigh them, study them through their magnifying glass, or simply play with them. It helps them process on a sensory level what is going into their meal and makes room for older kids to participate in the cooking at their comfort.. They may not always want to be part of the of the meal prep process, but when they do, I try to find a way.
contentment
Contentment is difficult to capture, rarely discussed, yet it defines the sum of our experiences. It is an idea woven into narrative that inspires courage. More than anything, I am learning to see that it is a shedding of wants and longings to unveil the beauty that is before us.
Contentment is difficult to capture, rarely discussed, yet it defines our experiences. To me, it is not about letting go of desires as much it as it is about unveiling the beauty that is already before us. Doing this is not as easy but it has felt worthwhile.
The challenges that began several years ago have inspired us to sojourn through life in search of beauty in the everyday. This in turn has taught me that contentment is woven into a framework of gratitude and acceptance. It is an amalgamation of ordinary moments illuminated in extraordinary ways—a richness found only in the milieu of life..
Early on in my motherhood journey, I assumed that intentions and activities alone were enough to steer our lives toward certain outcome (this is silly, I know—-yet it was my thinking then and, for better or worse, shaped the course of my life). Armed with a vision of intentional living and learning, I set about filling the time I had with my firstborn with more activities than I dare confess to publicly. Since I had to split my time between home, teaching as a professor, and the coffee business my husband and I founded, I filled our days with thoughtful “adventures” thinking it was the best I could offer .
My chief concern those days were logistical maneuverings to get from one activity to the next; from the art museum to a story hour, then it was nap time, then a service activity before heading home to make dinner from the things we managed to grow in our garden. We lived in a college town and loved hosting students from our community. While I was happy to pour myself out and serve others, it was exhausting (I’m exhausted just thinking about our weekly rhythm). Those choices, meaningful as they were, culminated as nothing more than a string of endless activity. It left very little room for reflection and being.
If I am honest, it was easy for me to be busy. Our culture cherishes the hustle. There seemed to be so much more affirmation for that lifestyle than an humble and slow one centered around Love, Goodness, and Truth.
The truth is bouncing from one activity to the next prevented us from having to confront the reality of our choices. It took a pandemic and great deal of time to recognize the character (or lack there of) that was growing as a result of our hullabaloo of a lifestyle. There was little room for contemplating the emotional cost of a busy schedule. As we began to press into slowness, we found ourselves walking the fine line of scarcity-mindset and contentment.
Seeing and claiming this idea is one and the same. Slowing down requires us to set boundaries foreign to us in our capitalistic culture. This required us to turn down opportunities to grow our business, earn more, achieve more, experience more, …._______more.” Slowing down meant recognizing our humanity. It meant saying “no” but also “probably so.” We had to learn to see our portion differently. By pulling our thoughts through a sieve of of enoughness, we slowly learn to see our circumstances differently. Everything from the physical space we occupy as a family to the connection we seek to cultivate is brought into the light. This is not a denial of needs or wants. It is a humble acknowledgement that all those things exist in tandem.
Enfolded within the idea of contentment is acceptance, compassion, and hope. All of which requires intentionally shedding our innate-scarcity mindset for a growth mindset. As we do this, we shift from control to connection. This is difficult to do when confronted with an endless secession of ‘to-dos’ and ‘needs-to-be met.’ Yet, I have found it to be a life-giving lens through which to view our days. Feelings of enough-ness often precedes courage. When knowing that there is an enough time, enough strength, or even enough safety to try something, there is impetus for action. Cultivating contentment requires letting go of the scarcity mindset. Choosing to see how we have enough is a radical thought these days.
”We each have the choice in any setting to step back and let go of the mindset of scarcity. Once we let go of scarcity, we discover the surprising truth of sufficiency. By sufficiency, I don’t mean a quantity of anything. Sufficiency isn’t two steps up from poverty or one step short of abundance. It isn’t a measure of barely enough or more than enough. Sufficiency isn’t an amount at all. It is an experience, a context we generate, a declaration, a knowing that there is enough, and that we are enough. Sufficiency resides inside of each of us, and we can call it forward. It is a consciousness, an attention, an intentional choosing of the way we think about our circumstances.”
―Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection
Daring to call forward a consciousness, “an intentional choosing of the way we think about our circumstance” does not equate to comfort or relief, yet it does give us agency. When take the liberty to slow down to reflect and redefine our circumstances, we walk in greater freedom to define our days.
collaging for our letter “C” activity: we gathered up whatever greens we had and contented ourselves with them those items for a creative project .
Blog Post Title One
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
Blog Post Title Two
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
Blog Post Title Three
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
Blog Post Title Four
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.