Another Spell for Trusting the Process

We live in an impatient world.

It can be so difficult not to treat our work and our practices

like just another on-demand service.

Let’s try to open ourselves to the magic all around us,

and cultivate the patience to partner with it.

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Mentioned:

A super-yummy gluten-free tiramisu recipe: https://bojongourmet.com/gluten-free-tiramisu-grain-free/

timewitchery.com/planner, where you can get support for trusting the process with a Time Witchery planner of your own.

Make Magic:

Trust the process by embracing it.

Stay in the present moment as fully as you can,

and remember that you are always co-creating

with other people, other forces, other magic.

Transcript: Another Spell for Trusting the Process

Natalie Miller: Welcome to Mind Witchery. I'm your host, Natalie Miller, and I'm so glad you're here. Hello, my friend. 

All right, couple weeks ago, I gave you a spell for trusting the process, and/but I don't know about you, but I find trusting the process really difficult sometimes. I mean, we live in the age of, for lack of a better word, the Amazon Primeification of things. We are expecting delivery immediately, same day. Okay, if not same day, at least tomorrow, yeah? 

We—in this particular stage of capitalism and the way that we use resources—we are impatient. We want things on demand. We want it, and then we want it to arrive. And so we, I think, apply that same impatience to our own selves. We want our efforts to deliver results immediately. Like, I've been trying this for a week. Why isn't it working? I've been doing this for a whole month. Where's the product? 

You may have noticed this is key to marketing to you, is that a company or a service provider will tell you how quickly you will get a result. I just bought a cream for my skin, and it's like, within 30 days, this is the result you're going to get. And okay, I understand we're motivated by that. And at the same time, when we apply that same impatience to our own work, to our own practices, I find it is rarely motivating, and that is perhaps because it is also just not realistic. 

Okay, so I have a couple of trusting the process examples for you today, and they come from my kitchen. I have been, over the last couple of weeks, endeavoring to create a really delicious, gluten free tiramisu. I am gluten free. I love tiramisu. It's a fun project. And so, I found a recipe that's amazing. It is in the show notes, should you like to go and take a look. 

And in this recipe, you make a sponge cake—a gluten-free sponge cake, and that involves whipping egg whites almost into a meringue. I actually love the way Alanna—the Bojon Gourmet, she calls herself—I love the way she describes how the egg whites should be. I was like, “Yeah, that is exactly how I would describe this particular egg white.” She says they should be whisked until glossy and holding a firm peak when turned upside down. 

And I found that place, but it took many, many minutes of whisking before I got to that place. If you are a cook, I think you know what I'm talking about. It's like I'm watching these egg whites, and I'm like, I don't know if it's going to happen. I don't see anything happen. I see foam. I see bubbles. I don't see anything resembling glossy and peaky, right? 

Happily, I have worked with egg whites enough that I knew I could trust the process. I knew that eventually something would happen. I just had to keep at it—or my mixer had to keep at it; I was not, like, doing it by hand, Julia Child style, or anything. So, that's what I did. I whisked and whisked and whisked until finally I started to see things changing, yeah? 

It's so interesting to me that no matter how much I do this, no matter how many times I whip eggs into a meringue, or I whip cream into whipped cream, or even, like, brown butter, or caramelized onions—some of those cooking techniques that just take time and patience—every single time, I cannot believe it when the transformation finally comes. I am amazed. Every single time, I take this little roller-coaster ride where I'm like, I don't know, I just don't think it's going to happen. Maybe I should turn up the heat on this butter. Maybe, I don't know, maybe the eggs aren't good. I always—and it's fun because I get a visceral, physical experience of what it's like to trust the process. 

And there are a couple of components here that I want to tease out. So, one is that I just have to keep going. I have to be in the present moment continuously, again and again and again and again, still stirring through, still beating the egg whites, just staying with it. 

Number two: I am not actually doing it alone. There are other forces at work here. Yes, my effort is making a difference, but that is not the only thing. Like, a magical thing is happening with the egg proteins. A magical thing is happening with the butter fats. A transformation is happening that involves heat, that involves friction, that involves air. It's not just me, and it's never just me. It's never just a you, either. So, even though it can feel that way sometimes when you're in the process, remembering that, like, “Nope, this is actually how it works. I am co-creating with other forces, and even though I'm not seeing a transformation yet, a transformation is underway.” 

One more thing: If it looks like magic, it's because it kind of is magic. It really is incredible, isn't it? That we've figured out how to work with the world in these ways. Michael Pollan writes that in ancient Greece, the word for “cook” and “butcher” and “priest”—same word: mágeiros. And that word etymologically is connected with the word “magic.” And whether you enjoy cooking, like I do, or perhaps eating, there is magic, isn't there?—in the food. And that magic is a result of being patiently present in the process. Even the food itself coming from plants, as it does, and animals, is magic. 

Someone was asking me the other day about Mind Witchery, and they were like, “What kind of witch are you?” Like, I don't know—which, you know, coven do I belong to? And I said, “Well, I consider myself a kitchen witch,” meaning I find magic and practice magic in my everyday life, in domesticity. Like, in my matriline, on both sides, actually, from both of my grandmothers, I get a desire to cook and to knit and to weave and to garden—to tend to the stuff of everyday life. 

I mean, once upon a time, when I was in graduate school, that's what I was writing my dissertation on. I was writing about the magic of everyday life, and especially of domestic life—life in our homes. And what I get from that—and maybe what you get from that too, if you think about it—what I get from that, from propagating a house plant, or from making a stew is, I get a connection with the magic that is all around me. 

Listen, we're about to experience it so bigly here in the Northern Hemisphere. Spring is coming, and before you know it, you will plant a seed and a seedling will arise. You'll put a tiny speck in dirt, and you will water it and give it light, and it will grow into tomatoes or zinnias. Like, you'll get a product. Eventually, it will produce something after much, much, much process. So, this spell, another spell for trusting the process, just invites you to see and connect with this slow, steady magic that is all around us, and to just pay attention to: Okay, how do I already work with that? How do I already trust the process? 

As I was whipping up those eggs into glossy, firm peaks, I was also thinking about some of what I'm cultivating in my business right now, or some of what I'm cultivating in my relationship right now. What's the lesson here? The lesson is: Keep going. Trust that the transformation is happening. Remember, you're not doing this alone. Everything is co-created, and your co-creating right now. And just watch; just pay attention. 

Also, frankly, take breaks. I did take several breaks when I was whipping up my egg whites. Now, take breaks, but just because you aren't seeing the result immediately doesn't mean the transformation isn't happening. If you take a little cutting of a plant, put it in water, you might not see anything for a little while, but trusting the process means that you just keep tending it. “All right, let me change your water. Let me make sure you have a nice sunny spot on the windows sill, little cutting.” And then eventually, almost without you even doing anything at all—it's kind of like a watched pot never boils situation. It's like when you really just open up and say, “Okay, I'm just going to... take your time. I'm here. I'm going to keep tending you, but I'm not expecting it to go faster than it's going to go.” That is when the little root pokes through. That is when the butter starts to smell golden. That is when the result just sort of appears like magic. 

So, another spell for trusting the process asks you to maybe practice a little bit of kitchen witchery, and this may be through something like cooking or planting some seeds. It may be just from observing the outside world, like walking, and in nature and noticing how, wow, there are little, tiny changes when I'm very present, and I'm patient, and I'm appreciative. And I keep taking my walks, and I'm not in a huge hurry when I am surrendering to the process, and trusting the process, and I just keep showing up—not in a hurry, not with any huge expectations, with more appreciation than expectation. Appreciation meaning: What's here? What do I notice? What am I co-creating? Rather than expectation, which is like, what do I want? What do I need to make happen? Right? There's a very different energy in those two ways of paying attention. 

So, when I show up with appreciation, the magic gets to unfold at its own pace. And I really do recommend that you, if you can, get a visceral experience of this. Like, feel it in your body, because your body can help your mind to understand on a deeper level how these transformations and evolutions happen, and that is one moment at a time. Not maybe on an Amazon Prime timeline, but on a more organic, and frankly, much more humane timeline. 

All right, my love, so the spell here is: I continuously co-create with what's present. I'm going to just keep showing up in this appreciative and co-creative way. That's what magic is all about. I'm going to be with what is. I'm going to respond to what is. I'm going to keep showing up. I'm going to learn a little from what those who've gone before me have learned. Right? This amazing chef who learned how to make a truly delicious gluten free sponge cake, which makes a truly delicious tiramisu, by the way. I myself am going to learn as I go and as I am present with the other ingredients of my co-creation, whether they are literal ingredients in what you're cooking, or they're the ingredients that go into your gardening, or they’re the ingredients that show up on your nature walk. Whatever it is, I'm here to co-create with them. 

And the more fully present you are in the moment, the more fully you can show up to the moment, the more powerfully responsive and creative and sensitive you are in the process—I mean, nine times out of ten, I'm not going to say always, but almost always, the transformation, the product, the evolution that comes out of that is just right—just right for your own evolution, just right for your own transformations, just right for what it is that you are bringing into the world. 

So, I don't know, maybe go start some bulbs, or bake a cake, or take a beautiful walk with no headphones; but immerse yourself into the magic that is all around you, and trust that all of that magic is infused into whatever it is that you are making, especially if you open up with patience to the process of letting it in. 

All right, my love, there you go. Thanks for listening. Bye, for now. 

Thank you for listening to this episode of Mind Witchery. To catch all the magic I'm offering, please subscribe to the show, or if you want a little bit of weekly witchiness in your inbox, sign up for my Sunday letter at MindWitchery.com. If today's episode made you think of a friend or loved one, your sister, your neighbor, please tell them about it. We need more magic-makers in this troubled world. Like all good things, this podcast is co-created by stellar people. Our music is by fabulous DJ, artist, and producer, Shammie D. Our gorgeous art is by the sorcerers at New Moon Creative. Mind Witchery is produced in conjunction with Particulate Media, K. O. Myers, Executive Producer. And I am Natalie Miller. Til next time.

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