My Favorite Wooden Spoon

Today, I bake bread. 

Last night, I took out the starter, fed it and waited for the moment to really dig in.

As I mixed flour, water and salt into the levan this morning, something small stood out to me: my wooden spoon. I mean, I have 5 wooden spoons, 

but as I reached for a mixing tool this morning, I went out of my way to find my favorite wooden spoon. 

That's right. One of them is my favorite. 

I also have a favorite spatula, but that's a story for another day. Can you guess which of these spoons is my favorite?

Positioned this way, it's pretty easy to spot. It is also easy to see that I have a fairly serious case of "What-is-the-best-configuration-of-these-spoons-for-a-blog-photo Disease," as finding just the right arrangement took me twenty-five minutes. 

But I digress, so let's get back to it.

This is my favorite wooden spoon:

It is the oldest in my utensil drawer, where all spoons face forward and all spatulas face back, in case you were wondering. Thank you OCD. (FWIW, if you're not a spoon or a spatula, all bets are off. Scoopers and spaghetti grabbers, you're on your own.)

My favorite wooden spoon is the one I grab most for baking, whether it's cookies, bread, cake, or pie.

My favorite wooden spoon is the one I grab most for cooking, too. 

My favorite wooden spoon is not my best wooden spoon, but it is the one I grab most often and the one I hold most dear in my kitchen adventures. 

It is flawed. There's a crack in the handle, and I remember hearing it happen some years ago while mixing stiff cookie dough. But it still mixes well. (When the doughing gets tough, however, I often look for another spoon.) 

The bowl of the spoon is well-seasoned and darkened from decades of use in grease, oil and water. It is also nicked and worn in some places. It is so imperfect that it is suddenly perfect for everything, and it still has a lot of life left in it!

I love this spoon because it is like me. Imperfect, but still useful. Worn, but weathered well. Well-used, but not used up. 

Being a helper by nature, I embrace most opportunities to do things for others, and I like this about me. I am versatile and a quick learner, and these qualities make me a pretty good spoon for most mixes. I also recognize that sometimes there's a better spoon for the job. 

It's a hard lesson, and these are the times that I am most thankful to be surrounded by a community of friends and family in the great utensil drawer of life. I may not always be facing the right direction, but you guys help me to get reoriented. You wash the muck out of my brain and heart, and you reach for me again and again. Thank you.

Are you somebody's favorite wooden spoon? Do you think that's just the weirdest metaphor? Me too. But there it is, just like my favorite utensil of all time. Perhaps I should knit it a cozy for winter. And perhaps not.

Now I'm off to knit and bake, and I hope that you also have nice plans for this lovely Saturday. 

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit (or whatever) in Good Health!