Ripe bananas and a wicked tongue

We had several perfectly over-ripe bananas sitting on the counter this morning.  I don’t have my own recipe (yet) so I spent some time Pinteresting (that’s a verb, dontcha know?) banana bread recipes while enjoying my morning coffee.  I found several, and a couple I’d like to try, but most were too labour intensive for me right now, suffering from fairly severe tendonitis, with no ability to see my RMT.    I found a pretty easy one that only used a mixer and i knew my arm/hand could handle.

I had JUST added the flour, and was adding in the spices… when…. wait.  Let me back up a second.

Yesterday I made “Goody Two Chews” one of my most used Podleski Sister recipes for healthy homemade granola bites.  this recipe calls for Pumpkin Pie spice.. which I don’t have in the house,  so I put in all the regulars: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves.. One of my spice jars had this razor sharp barb sticking out that I didn’t see, and I sliced my finger right open.  Thankfully didn’t ruin that batch of yumminess, but it bled pretty good for a solid 5 minutes. Not deep or ghastly enough for stitches, but still a good cut.

I didn’t take care of that container afterwards, I just put it back in the cupboard.  I should have nipped it in the bud.. I should have dealt with that evil little container right away – as soon as it sliced me open and did it’s mortal damage.  But it went back in the cupboard.. waiting to do it’s evil again.  (are you catching a deeper meaning here??)

Fast forward to this morning… Here was my lovely cake dough.. with the last ingredients, the spices going in.. and i took that foul miserable evil spice container out.  THINKING I was being smart.. i looked it over intently trying to find where the nasty barb was.  AHA!!! there it is!  I found it!   I touched it.. and PLOOF! it fell off.  RIGHT into my dough.  it was less than a cm long (~1/4″ for you Americans)  and not much thicker than a course hair.  But it sunk right in the flour.  And i couldn’t find it.  i sifted what i could.. no luck.

Knowing what it did to my finger.. how could I bake that into the banana loaves?  And risk either Guillermo or I ingesting it? What damage it would do to our mouths, throat, oesophagus, intestines… oy vey!

So i did the only thing i could do.     sigh.

I’m going for a walk.   And ruminating about the sharp barbs in my life.. the one little tiny thing or many things that I may need to confess that are ruining my “batch”

I immediately thought of a recent conversation I had with someone, it was going so well, very lovely, and then this person said one very sharp nasty biting thing to me… and it ruined my whole day.   I have a tendency to have a sharp sarcastic (I like to think witty?) tongue.   I know i’ve hurt people.  I’ve said cutting things.  Especially to those closest to me.

As brother James said.. the tongue, like that tiny barb on that spice jar.. is desperately wicked.. who can know it?

 James 3:5-10

Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. ⁶ The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

⁷ All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, ⁸ but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

⁹ With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 

How often have I cursed fellow humans.. like those silly politicians I don’t agree with that say things in public that really don’t help their reputation, or those not taking Covid-19 seriously and still going to beaches & spring break to party, or those that are letting their dogs continually poop on my front lawn (current pet peeve… literally)

On my walk I saw one of these little cast iron lawn signs.. made me laugh, and immediately order one.

 Next on my list:  curbing my on line shopping habit…. but that’s for another day.  Today has enough lessons to chew on.   Lookit me, in my fifties now, and I’m home schooling  myself.