Three girls sat at a table making things happen. Making their coffee disappear from its cups. Making croissant flakes fall to the table top. Making men with bad intentions flee their presence. And making wishes for the women they know and don’t know.
Do the colorful eggs taste better? If you think they will, then they do.
What is the difference between intention and magic? How powerful are we, these three women, when we put our minds to something? Can we stop ourselves from getting sunburned if we just truly believe that you can’t get sunburned after 4 o’clock? Can we banish someone if we speak out at the right moment, say “stop” when we know it needs to stop? Can we heal someone by merely wishing them happiness from afar?
Maybe it’s magic. Maybe it’s Maybelline. Maybe it’s just bein’ a woman. Maybe it’s the way that summer feels on our skin. Maybe we are just in a weird mood because the moon is full.
I think it is magic. And here is how that magic works: Get some flour, some eggs, some water. Gather some fresh thyme from the garden like we’re little wood nymphs. Make a dough. Roll it out. Cut it, boil it, pour a sauce on it. Then eat the fruits of our labor—our little pasta children—that we created with our ingredients and our hands and our good intentions to nourish us and connect us and give us something to do on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
And it’s like every grandma in the history of grandmas has always said: when you put your love into making a dough, whether it’s pie, cookie, bread or pasta, the result will be delicious. If you put your friendship, your laughter, your disparaging comments about men who have wronged you, your hopes, your dreams, your desire to take down both capitalism and patriarchy (same thing?), your resiliency and your conversation into a pasta dough, it will make a decent dish of pasta and, most importantly, a really fun afternoon with friends.
Maybe men have been right all along. Maybe women, when together, are too powerful. But that’s fine. Because being powerful is fun, as is making pasta.
(As you go into your week, fuel yourself on the power of these women making pasta: https://www.instagram.com/pastagrannies/)
XOLily
Lily Haight 