How to Cook a Wolf

There's a whining at the threshold -

There's a scratching at the floor -

To work! To work! In Heaven's name!

The wolf is at the door!

- Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Ups and downs in the economy come in cycles. I don't know why we haven't noticed this and acted accordingly, but we don't. The above was written during the Great Depression, and I found it in SIMPLE ABUNDANCE by Sarah Ban Reathnach who wrote it in 1995 when the economy was in another downturn and people were being laid off in droves (they called it "downsizing"). She wrote a book - a nice thick one too - about how to have a wonderful life without spending much money. The book, HOW TO COOK A WOLF, was written by Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher during the worst of the World War II food shortages. Her advice was to weed out desires, leaving just "holy hungers." Then she suggests putting our energy into satisfying those hungers. To me that would mean getting a couple of dead ripe tomatoes at the farmer's market and having them for lunch with nothing but a piece or two of cheese. The life of our dreams can be made up of day after day of these little joyful things.