Keeping your Salt Together

who we are
where we came from
what we want informs
when and even 
how
we perform life's little (and not-so-little) tasks.

For example: all the women in the family have salt keepers. And our salt keepers are identical.

That's right. We all keep our salt. It's not in a little cardboard cylinder with a metal opener that can cut the tender underbelly of your nail. Nope. Not ours. We dump our various kinds of salt into the aesthetically pleasing yin-and-yang wooden salt keeper for safe-keeping, ease of access, non-clumping, finger-protecting purposes.

There's something else you need to understand: For most of us, not having "things" is a big deal. We sort and chuck our way through life using the methods described in "Unstuff Your Life". Yes, we all have the book, and yes, we all use it, too. Just like we use our salt keepers. So if we're bothered by stuff that isn't useful, and we could have our salt in a little cardboard cylinder, why do we bother to take the extra steps of sorting and keeping the salt in something used for one purpose and one purpose only, when we generally eschew specialty kitchen equipment?!?

It's because we share what is good, and what works. But where we came from - together in one home - influences who we are (not all the same) and what we want (value): tasty food, companionship in the kitchen, and time together.

So when we make food for our families, our drawers are organized similarly, even though our kitchen layouts are vastly different. We are at ease in each others' kitchens. Kitchens are, we have been taught, and have experienced, a place where discipline and love mix and where family felicity blooms.

We all are tactile creatures. I have seen each woman in my family dip her fingers into her salt keeper and feel the texture as we take out a pinch (or five) and toss them into whatever she's making.

It's about the feeling, the grit, the togetherness - not just the keeping of the salt. With our salt keepers, we keep together.