Sweet Potato Pudding Life - Gems for a Sweeter Living. Charlene Danvers

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      Preface

      The title of this book references the Sweet Potato Pudding, which is a Jamaican dessert. It is divinely delicious, especially when served piping hot with its sweet, sticky caramel top. This has always been a favourite of mine ever since I was a child, and to this day, I still devour it like it’s my first time having it. Whoever’s grandmother invented this deserves accolades and a high five because it’s that good.

      Beyond the finished product of a heavenly Sweet Potato Pudding are the varying stages for the final output—from the onset of planting the potatoes, to caring for the crops, to reaping the harvest, to peeling, to grating, to combining all the ingredients, to setting the correct temperature for baking, to baking, to cooling, to serving, to eating.

      Metaphorically, Sweet Potato Puddings are just like life, with all the intricate processes that we must go through in order to become who we need to be in finality. Just as each process in creating a Sweet Potato Pudding is necessary, so it is with life. Whatever phases we encounter are like requisite rites of passage, if I may allude to that, for us to be better equipped for other phases of our lives as we progress.

      I decided to write this book because so many times, we encounter life’s challenges and we feel as though we are alone, and perhaps “unlucky,” and that we are the only ones experiencing such setbacks. This is far from the truth. We all have our respective challenges; show me a man without a challenge, and I’ll tell you that is a dead man.

      Like the sweet potato, as humans, we continuously transcend. Once reaped, sweet potatoes are covered in dirt and have to be washed. Similarly, sometimes we feel like we are covered in mess, but then that mess is brushed off and we can turn that experience into a message. We always have the power to transmute our not so favourable experiences to wonderful ones—sometimes it’s a matter of perspective, hard work, grit, and consistency. It is up to us in the end to choose: Stay stuck, being buried in the ground like a sweet potato, or brush off the dirt and transform into a sumptuous Sweet Potato Pudding. May you always choose the latter.

      Life is nicer than any Sweet Potato Pudding. You can always overcome the darts life hurls at you, growing stronger, wiser, more grounded, looking to the sweeter side of life, and then some.

      Wishing you light, love, and blessings in abundance!

      Dedication

      Dedicated to my nephew, Alexander Micah Danvers

      May you always trust your process and find solace in life, come what may—always looking to blindingly sunny days, knowing you can

      achieve anything you set your heart to.

      When you know exactly what you need, you get bumped to

      the front of the line.

      Get bumped to the front of the line

      I once went to an electronics store to get a laptop, and while I was standing in line, a gentleman outlined the store’s safety precautions for COVID-19. He proceeded to walk down the line, asking each patron the nature of their business. Most were unsure, and some just wanted to window-shop. He approached me and asked what my intent in the store was, and I told him.

      He then spoke into his walkie talkie and said, “Peter, I have a customer here and she knows exactly what she wants. Can I send her?”

      I was immediately directed to that sales associate. He was absolutely wonderful and gave me two discounts, and within twenty minutes, I had my gadgets in hand and was through the door. When you know exactly what you need, you get bumped to the front of the line.

      Your authentic self will take you places once thought of as a fairy tale.

      Be as loud with your energy as gibbons are with their vocal displays

      On several occasions, I was told that I have a “presence” because my energy was always felt. When I was in graduate school, I was given “hell” by a professor or two and was shortly thereafter fired from my first “professional” job as an immigrant in North America. While those experiences changed my perspective on many things, I refused to dumb down my personality and talents to fit into the expected ramekins of the world.

      Gibbons have a remarkable way of letting you know they are fully present with their almost deafening bellows; they care zero about who or what is annoyed. If you allow it, your authentic self will take you places once thought of as a fairy tale. Stop living a facade to appease your circle—you will be forever bored and unhappy if you do this. Let the world see you, hear you, feel you; you never know who is watching.

      Many of us go through life like gabardines: hard on ourselves and not allowing people to help “smooth” us out.

      Avoid the gabardine effect

      Stop being so hard on yourself as the gabardine is on the iron. Growing up in Jamaica, it was mandatory to be clad in uniforms for school. I wore many uniforms for as long as I can remember attending school, but I specifically remember one that was the hardest of all to iron.

      No matter how I tried, I couldn’t do justice in getting the desired “ironed” look. The material was just so hard on the iron, like the pressure was too much for it, so I had to, on numerous occasions, ask my mother for help so I didn’t go to school looking like a rolled-up clump of crushed paper.

      Many of us go through life like gabardines: hard on ourselves and not allowing people to help “smooth” us out. No man is an isle; therefore, no one should stand alone. It is ok to ask for help, it is ok to accept help, it is ok to falter at times, but it is not ok to be hard on yourself and stay beaten down.

      There’s winning in persistence.

      The cornmeal is in the same aisle

      I remember searching for cornmeal in the grocery store to no avail—it wasn’t in sight. My craving that night for some cornmeal porridge was going to be quelled by the hook or the crook. I traversed the aisle twice where it would be usually located, then went to another aisle where an employee assisted me in getting one, but it wasn’t what I needed.

      Being the stubborn being I am, I went back to the aisle and boom, there it was, albeit a completely different brand, but exactly what I needed.

      There’s winning in persistence. Sometimes you look for things you want in specific people, places, things, etc.—while what you really need is packaged differently, most often with much better outcomes.

      We must always strive to make life better, not only for ourselves, but also for those we encounter.