The .Plan

In West Hollywood there is an Italian restaurant, Al Gelato, where you can eat the world’s best large meatball for $5.95.

Making meatballs, or making a large meatball, is not an exact science. You take ground chuck and Italian sausage, 2:1 or 3:1, and mix it with basil, parsley, oregano, salt, ground pepper, stale bread crumbs, and a few eggs. To help the meatball absorb water, minced zucchini is also an option.

It never looks pretty when you start out:

I think that’s why cooking can be therapeutic. Only in the kitchen do you see the rawness at the beginning, the beauty at the end, and the messy process in the middle.

Maggi Dawn has written, “Repeated, habitual prayer gradually tests and sifts what you believe is really important and what is of ephemeral value. If something doesn’t matter that much, the momentum for prayer will diminish. But if it does matter, an unanswered prayer becomes like grit in an oyster — something that worries and annoys you until you are determined not to take no for an answer.”