When I was very little, my mother went through a granola mamma stage.  She baked bread, made yogurt and worked in a yarn shop.  We did yoga in the mornings with Miss Lily on PBS and spent the summer months outdoors: gardening, swimming, picking berries, hunting for shells at the beach, or collecting butterflies.  It was the early seventies and many women tried on the earth mother guise.  My mother is what my aunt refers to as a “joiner.”  This was just a stage for her, one of many.  But for me, it set the foundations for the woman I am today. 

I distinctly remember sitting on my mother’s lap at the yarn shop, surrounded by row after row of brightly colored yarn.  There was a plethora of deep gold, earthy browns, and mossy green.  Ah, the seventies.   

Huddled together in amongst a tangle of yarn, she would tell me, “I need you here to keep me warm.  You’re a good little space heater.”  And a surge of warmth would spread from my tummy, up to my rosy cheeks.  I felt good and helpful.  It didn’t matter that my toes were cold, I was mommy special helper.  She would knit and I would try to hold still, only itching my nose when the yarn tickled too much as she moved her needles up and down, up and down for hours. 

My mother never taught me to knit, and I learned to sew and quilt on my own as an adult.  But I remember the warmth and goodness of sitting on her lap, the calming rhythm of “woman’s” work.  She seemed endlessly patient with me and my brother, while she worked at these simple, but beautiful tasks. 

I haven’t bought bread from a store in about four or five years.  Even the best bakery bread can’t compete with pulling a steaming loaf out of the oven and eating a slice before it cools.  There is no plastic inside my refrigerator; instead there are fresh, organic veggies and leftovers in glass containers.  I make my own yogurt, practice yoga daily, yearn for a vegetable garden (hard to do in the desert… I’m adverse to wasting water!), and still love watching butterflies and bees. 

In my crazy life as a grad student, I make it a priority to cook homemade meals, practice yoga and appreciate nature.  I owe these values to my mother and a time when macramé and all natural peanut butter drifted into mainstream America.