Reflections on sourdough bread

I'm in the middle of trying to make my first sourdough bread. I LOVE it, but can't get it here in Japan and decided to make some myself. But I have no idea what I am doing, so I am just following the recipe as best I can and we'll see how it turns out. I let the starter get "ripe" for 6 days, and tomorrow I make the bread for lunch. I hope it is yummy!

So I have found it so interesting that you can leave it out to ferment, but it doesn't go "bad". Basically because it is a living thing. The yeast is alive. In Japan there are lots of fermented foods, a paste we put in our soup that is basically fermented soy bean paste (I think), many different kinds of pickled vegetables to eat with rice, fermented beans called nato (that I don't like by the way) and of course all the sauces in Japanese foods that are "aged". We don't have many fermented foods in the West so it was all very new to me to discover this whole new world of foods that are so good, and so good for you. I learned early on not to ask the origin of many foods, just to taste and enjoy them first. Then it was not so shocking to find out I was eating something "aged".

Rocky tries to describe my bread that I am making to Japanese people, there is no word for it in Japanese so he tells them I am making rotten bread. It is so not true, the starter is far from rotten, it is aged and it will be delicious. It takes time to make good things I am finding out.

One of the things I have always been very poor at is waiting. I want to do things NOW, and I want things to happen, YESTERDAY. You should have seen me when I was waiting for our adoption to happen, I am very BAD at waiting. Sometimes I make poor Rocky miserable. He's so patient with me and he's taught me so much about waiting.

Waiting is an inevitable part of life, especially if you want God's will and His plan. He doesn't always work on our timeline, I know that for sure. I am learning to be patient more and more all the time for things to happen, in God's perfect timing. He has given me true life, and he is aging me into something that I hope will be good! Because it is becoming more precious to me to watch God work, than it is for me to see happen what I wanted to happen, I like to think I am more patient than ever before. Life experiences have taught me that good things really do come to those who wait on God to move (italics by me).

I have also learned that a relationship with God and knowing him takes time. In our fast/instant everything world, seeking a relationship with God is the total opposite of what we are used to. He is soooooooooooooooooooooo huge and vast that we could spend our whole life getting to know Him and only scratch the surface.

So I am learning that where there is life, taking time to do something doesn't mean it will go rotten, quite the contrary. It will be yummy and unique and a wonderful treat to enjoy (oops sorry, I started thinking about the bread again!)