Story of the Pot Roast

When I am in the kitchen cooking, I think about my mom, grandma, popo, and gung gung that have passed as they were the ones that influenced my food choices and the way I cook today.  I feel extra connected to them when I am preparing my meal by carrying on with family traditions, and  the small nuances of the secret ingredients that have been passed down through generations.  

Just the other day I was having lunch with my dear friend Amy who mentioned this story and I feel compelled to share. While this story relates to the generations that have passed on their customs, it is also a beautiful story that enables us to grow into our own accord.  The underlying statement of 'this is how it has always been done,'  is an opportunity to check-in to see if certain practices are still relevant to our life today.  Explore this question, 'are there any childhood beliefs that are no longer true for me at this time?' 

Maybe allow this following story to support your process of self study and awareness building.  

A young woman was hosting a dinner party for her friends and served a delicious pot roast.  One of her friends enjoyed it so much that she asked for the recipe, and the young woman wrote it down for her.
Upon looking over the recipe, her friend inquired, “Why do you cut both ends off the roast before it is prepared and put in the pan?” The young woman replied, “I don’t know. I cut the ends off because I learned this recipe from my mom and that was the way she had always done it.”
Her friend’s question got the young woman thinking and so the next day she called her mom to ask her: “Mom, when we make the pot roast, why do we cut off and discard the ends before we set it in the pan and season it?” Her mom quickly replied, “That is how your grandma always did it and I learned the recipe from her.”
Now the young woman was really curious, so she called her elderly grandma and asked her the same question: “Grandma, I often make the pot roast recipe that I learned from mom and she learned from you. Why do you cut the ends off the roast before you prepare it?” The grandmother thought for a while, since it had been years since she made the roast herself, and then replied, “I cut them off because the roast was always bigger than the pan I had back then. I had to cut the ends off to make it fit.”  mindfulpamilymedicine.com