Head down against the coming headwind

When I run, I wear a baseball cap. And when the wind is up during a run, I have to keep my head down to keep my cap from flying off my head.

With the holiday season, I feel like I'm running into a headwind. Time to keep my head down and push my way through.

I've never been a big fan of the retail aspect of the holiday season.

These days it feels like it starts soon after Labor Day.

That's because Halloween has emerged as a Big Retail Event.

So now you have Halloween segueing into Thanksgiving, which blurs with Christmas, then ends, finally, with New Year's.

Black Friday isn't the Friday after Thanksgiving. It's every Friday at the malls.

This heightened frenzy on the retail end just seems to raise the overall holiday anxieties. A high tide raises all boats, right?

Certainly, there are parts of the holidays that I enjoy, once I've gotten my head into it.

I like being able to see family, especially my children. I like the spiritual moments when they come. Every year I wait for the Christmas Moment of spiritual fulfillment. And every year one comes along, now matter how cranky I might get during the process.

I'm turning the corner into the stiffening wind. I have my head down.

I don't want to lose my hat.

For that matter, I don't want to lose my head.

Cooking as a stress reliever

It's nice to know that there's a medical basis for I've always sensed -- cooking is a great stress reducer.

The online version of the AARP Bulletin had a story recently that said cooking actually is closer to an anti-depressant than people realize; cooking triggers beneficial physiological responses in the body.

The Bulletin cited Dr. Bruce Rabin, medical director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Healthy Lifestyle Program.

Rabin says cooking "reduces the concentration of hormones that go up with stress." Cooking forms a feeling of general well-being knowing "we're cooking for others and are optimistic of a good result."

He also notes that the rhythm of a cook and he or she chops and prepares can be a form of meditation.

I started to cook by need at the time of my separation/divorce some 14 years ago. And I've been in the kitchen ever since.

It's always been a way for me to transition from one part of the day to the next -- from day to evening, from work to home, from crazy to not so crazy. I used it as a transition from the craziness of my job. I use it today as a transition from the somewhat less craziness of my semi-retirement.

There is indeed something therapeutic about creating a singular meal from the various parts that are in the refrigerator or pantry or cupboards.

It's a small form of making order from chaos -- I might not be able to do that in the big world, but I can do it in the small world of my kitchen.

It's developed to the point where I know blog at Eats@Home about the recipes I've discovered.

I don't mind the expectation that I put on myself to produce a good meal. High expectations can themselves be a stress inducer, but I just go through the rhythm of what I do and it usually comes out all right.

Of course, nothing is absolute.

I tried a corned beef cabbage recipe for St. Patrick's Day (in honor of wife Jane's Irishness) that tested my patience and ultimately was a stress producer as opposed to a stress reliever.

The dinner that should have been done at 7 p.m. wasn't done ultimately until 8:30 p.m. We had to resort to an emergency meal out of the freezer and we had pizza as our traditional Irish meal.

You can't win 'em all in the kitchen.

But mostly cooking has been a big welcome dose of Prozac for me and my psyche.