April 11, 2003

Life Without Peanut Butter

Tentatively, I picked up the silver spoon, and dipping it slowly into the new jar of smooth, creamy peanut butter, I retrieved just enough for a good taste. Warily, I took the bite into my mouth, delighted in the flavor�and swallowed it.

I waited a while, nothing happened. I spread a dollop on two crackers, and ate those. Still nothing!

A bit too dramatic? Not after my experience with what I thought was a peanut allergy.

After �pigging out� on peanuts, almonds and cashews on a road trip to my daughter�s home in Nevada, I awoke the next morning with horrendous sores in and around my mouth, and hives on arms and legs. Something had triggered an allergic reaction, with which I struggled, on and off, for the next few months.

There seemed to be a complete change for the better, when I cut out all nuts, and I didn�t touch ANY for over a year. It was a year of discovering that there are nuts, especially peanut products, in many of the processed foods we eat.

After two years of abstaining, I had slowly begun to introduce nuts, one variety at a time, back into my diet. No reaction.

This was the final test. A tiny bit of peanut butter.

Nothing! (I discovered later that the reaction was most likely caused by a medication which I was taking at the same time.)

But it was one of those experiences of �doing without�, which produce a deep appreciation for the small things in life which we so often take for granted. I mean�peanut butter! Never had it tasted so delicious. Ridiculous as it seems, I thought about what a loss it would be, to have a life without peanut butter.

And that was just one tiny little thing that is a delight, which we hardly notice.

And then there was water.

I seldom drank �plain� water. I didn�t even like the taste. I drank it flavored, or doctored up in some way, such as coffee, tea, soda, etc. But plain water? I don�t think so.

Until the night of the Northridge Earthquake in southern California. We awoke to what seemed like a huge giant had gripped our home and was violently shaking it up and down, - up and down. When the dust settled (actually it didn�t, for days.) We immerged from our beds to find cupboards emptied, furniture toppled or destroyed, the oven thrown out of the wall, doors jammed shut by furniture, windows and walls cracked, - and that was just the beginning. For days, the community was like a war zone. Some homes were destroyed. No electricity, no gas, and NO WATER. I found out what real thirst was all about. I discovered that you can do without�everything�but WATER.

Headwaters of the Willamette, Cottage Grove, OR Taken by: marcia

Since then, small bottles of drinking water have never been far from my reach, and �it is delicious!

Sometimes it takes a little deprivation, to produce appreciation. That�s not all bad!

Thanks for reading. Be back Monday.

Text � copyright 2003 - 2008 The Homespun Philosopher

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