Today I had a uniquely Montana experience. Let's just say it's not something I've done anywhere else. My horse trainer Janice had a friend in town for an organic ranching conference, needless to say he is an organic rancher. He brought with him loads of organic ground beef that he was selling cheap. Yes, we'd take 25 pounds - so his assistant called me to arrange pick up for this morning. I arrived at the Holiday Inn at the set time and couldn't help but feel like I was involved in some kind of drug deal. I inquired for this person upon my arrival, but no one seemed to know his whereabouts. Wait, weren't we supposed to meet in the parking lot? No answer at the cell number I had for him. My palms got clammy and my mouth dry. Was he not going to show with the goods? I had already planned the next week of dinner menus and beyond using said beef, and was going to give some to my in-laws too (in Montana, it's not unusual to offer gifts of meat). After nervously pacing around for 20 minutes, way past our set meeting time, I had to make a decision to wait longer or head to yoga class. Ugh. I decided to let go of my attachment to the beef and went to class. On the mat thoughts of the yummy stuff and all my recipes kept floating into my head - why was I so fixated on this?? Truly, what bothered me most was that things didn't go according to plan. We spend a lifetime learning how to roll with it, and as someone who has a plan for almost everything, this can really mess with me. It was a good lesson, I concluded as I rolled up my mat. Forget the beef. A few hours later, while putting the lights on our Christmas tree (more on that soon), the phone rang - it was the rancher. "What happened to you?" I asked in a voice that sounded a bit desperate. There had been a very unfortunate accident with his assistant...I'll skip those details, but the happy ending is that I got my beef delivered to my door. I let go and it found me. There is a lesson in almost everything, if you're open to it. Labels: Food, Montana, Yoga