I'll never forget. Around this time last year Justin and I were at a friends house for dinner. During this winter season in 2024 I had already begun my bread journey through some active dry yeast recipe I found on Pinterest. Super basic, yet so good. I’ll never downplay active yeast. Always handy when you don’t have time to ferment with wild yeast. Anyways. I decided that while I experiment with new recipes I might as well create my own starter to try sourdough bread. So I did just that. I read a few blogs on feeding ratios. and how much flour and water to put when trying to create your own wild natural yeast. Turns out it takes a good 2-4 weeks depending on your kitchen climate. Although I wasn’t a fan of the waiting part. I did it anyways.

wait so what happened at your friends house?

Im gettin there, Im gettin there sheesh. Okay so yeah. Justin and I were at our friends house and it turns out my friends husband has been making bread for a while now and had some fresh sourdough pizza for us. As Im eating this pizza I couldn’t help but compliment it and talk about bread. He was sharing that he was gifted some starter from an elderly neighbor and how his neighbor always shared that “sourdough is so simple, people are complicating it nowadays.” And it made me realize how it actually does seem complicated. The way my friend made it seem was that its just about keeping starter in your fridge and whenever you were ready to bake some bread for the week, you take it out, feed it and make some dough. It was just meant to be a way of life or as I like to think of it, a rhythm in your week. I was so intrigued by this conversation. Long story short, he gifted me maybe 2 teaspoons worth of his starter. I was so grateful that the very night he gifted it to me, I fed it. And it grew!

things got deep after this.

Im being dramatic. But really. I felt like I had opened a portal of gifts and lessons God was trying to teach me all along. Two main lessons I want to share with whoever is willing to read this far into the blog.

1. I will miss the true beauty of actually living unless I slow down.

2. Your Heavenly Father is the ultimate creator, therefore, when I create, I am walking in true identity.

Lets talk about the first one.

You cant rush the art of making bread. Maybe I should say you shouldn’t rush making anything. When you rush, you hurry. And when you hurry the very thing you're creating can easily be sabotaged or you're prone to missing out on the beauty of the process. When you hurry you're such in a rush to get to the end result that you miss out on the joy of creating. Not only that but whatever you created isnt nearly as good as it could have been if you wouldve slowed down.

Every time I rushed baking, I messed up. Every time. And if I didnt mess up, halfway through the process, the joy of making it was lost somewhere. I would catch myself in moments where I just wanted to see the end result more than enjoy the process. And the process is why I fell in love with making bread in the first place! So as I slowed down in building this skill and making the rhythm of baking bread for my family work; I started to slow down in everything I did. From rushing out the house to get to the library on time for story time, to getting to church, to making breakfast, to bath/bedtime. I slowed down. The pressure of hurry slowly started to lift as I was more self-aware of how much I craved a pace that was more fitting for my nervous system & my family.

When I rushed bread and didn’t see the results I was looking for, I started to question what other areas in my life lack the beauty of slowing down. I began to examine my routines, my rhythms, my schedule. I noticed that if I wanted to master the skill of baking fresh bread, I also needed to master living hurry-free. And this part was so liberating.

With consistent practice and intentional self-awareness in my pace in the every day, I stopped giving in to what my husband likes to call it “invisible pressure.” A pressure that most times is coming from within ourselves, to get somewhere quick, getting everything done as fast as possible.