The Challenge of Change

Hillsboro, New Mexico 2009

This week New Jersey is offering up her trademark hot and humid Dog Day's of Summer. As I prepare to move to New Mexico I will always remember the challenge I faced while making bread during New Jersey's steamy season. Measuring water temps, watching the Weather Channel, trying to get a feel for how the day would unfold and how it would affect my dough as it fermented. And trying to calculate just how much time I had to get the dough put up in to the proofing room was like a good race, setting a good pace to finish strong . . .

As my bread making in NJ comes to an end (only 7 weeks to go) I find that my mind wanders off to the desert Southwest where humidity is hard to find. The very fact that many folks use "swamp" coolers instead of refrigerated air should give you an idea of how moisture deprived the region can be. I know that this extreme environment is going to offer a whole different challenge to the art of making naturally leavened Sourdough Bread.

I marvel at how the smallest change can become a challenge and an opportunity to grow. Change in any form causes us to respond in some way, and through that response we discover some things about ourselves that we may never have known. Change makes us decide what we really believe in, what is important to us and what it is that we really need rather than what we want. I'm thinking of a line in Sheryl Crow's song Soak Up the Sun . . . "It's not having what you want - It's wanting what you've got".

Thoughtfully

Kath