A Simple Joy

If anyone would have told me a few years ago that I would give up the salt shaker, I would have laughed in their face while salting my bacon. 

Salt was in my hands at the table as often as my fork -and I used it with total abandon. I carried the salt shaker with me while eating in front of the TV. . I filled it often and kept it on the kitchen counter for quick use. A sprinkle was never enough. And two shakes deserved a third.

Not until my son suggested I get a salt block to set in the chair next to me, did I realize how much I really misused this seasoning. To drive his point even further, he showed up one day with a salt block and presented it to me as a gift.  

"This ought to last you a few weeks," he said.

So, I did something then that I thought I would never do. I gave up the salt shaker. 

Mind you, I didn't go completely crazy and  insist all my canned and prepared and fast food be "salt free", but I did make a major difference in the amount of sodium I was pouring into my body.

It has been over a year.

My salt shaker is empty and tucked into the junk drawer. 

My big Morton box is pushed somewhere on the shelf behind the outdated cans of hominy and generic black eyed peas. And I only dust it off and use it in the case of emergency biscuits or some other recipe that calls for "just a dash".

I've learned to eat things without the added salt and I really don't miss it. Scrambled eggs taste good with chopped peppers. I use onions and mushrooms to give meat more flavor, and I've simply grown accustomed to the true taste of most foods without an added skin of sodium.

However, this is the second summer I have gone without eating one of my favorite garden treats. Tomatoes.

Without salt, they just didn't taste good at all. They lacked zing. They seemed mushy and unattractive and useless.

Every time I plucked one from the vine, I smelled that familiar tomato fragrance that I loved since I was old enough to eat. 

I salivated when serving them to my husband.

I mourned for the taste of them as I lined them up perfectly on the windowsill to further ripen in the sun.

But yesterday, as I held a red warm tomato in my hand, I thought to myself -

" Do I want to go through the rest of my life not enjoying this delicious treat?"

So, I pulled a chair up to the cabinet and reached wayyyyy back to retrieve the salt box.

I cut the tip off a beautiful ripe tomato and sprinkled on a little salt. Then I stood over the sink and sunk my teeth into that tart/sweet/salty flesh like I was a little girl again. 

I let he juice drip down my chin and the seeds plop on my tee shirt and I didn't care.  I even wiped my face with the back of my hand and the hem of my shirt. 

And I didn't feel one single bit of guilt. Only joy.

This is not to say I'm back using salt again. I'm not. I know I am healthier without a shaker attached to my hand.

But I also know that we should never deny ourselves a simple joy every now and then.

That tomato made me smile...