The Cure for Discouragement: a Good Meal

Though we can't necessarily fix all the problems that led to our discouragement, we can offset our poor spirits by preparing a good meal.

Feeling discouraged is part of the human experience. Defeat, failure and disappointment are staples in my life because they go hand-in-hand with taking risks, and the result is an intimate knowledge of discouragement.

A great many things can trigger discouragement: chronic pain, inability to lose weight despite cranking up the fitness routine, a financial setback, loss of an account or job, a dismal launch of a business, a C grade when you needed a B, failure of a good-faith effort to improve a relationship, a poor decision made in haste--the list is endless.

Fortunately, so are the cures--a good meal. Though we can't necessarily fix all the problems that led to our discouragement, we can offset our poor spirits by preparing a good meal.

Here is another set of recent Hawaii-family meals--and desserts, of course....

But before we get to the photos, let's pause for a few words of wisdom about success and failure, which is so often the cause of discouragement:

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." (Winston Churchill)

"Where there is ruin, there is hope for treasures." (Rumi)

"Success: To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." (Ralph Waldo Emerson, submitted by J.P. Bahner)



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Tamago is Japanese for egg.



lau-laus from Pete's Belly Bustazs, Hilo.



A pan of enchiladas being assembled for a party. Here's the recipe for Homemade Enchilada Sauce 



Local residents are allowed to pick a quart of ohelo berries each on federal lands.



The harvested ohelo berries from three of us.



The ohelo berries topping a cream-cheese pie filling--yum.



Same filling, with fresh blueberry topping. 

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Are you like me? Ever since my first summer job decades ago, I've been chasing financial security. Not win-the-lottery, Bill Gates riches (although it would be nice!), but simply a feeling of financial control. I want my financial worries to if not disappear at least be manageable and comprehensible.  And like most of you, the way I've moved toward my goal has always hinged not just on having a job but a career.
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"I want to thank you for creating your book Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy. It is rare to find a person with a mind like yours, who can take a holistic systems view of things without being captured by specific perspectives or agendas. Your contribution to humanity is much appreciated."
Laura Y.

Gordon Long and I discuss The New Nature of Work: Jobs, Occupations & Careers (25 minutes, YouTube) 

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