Making a real hash of things

My son was so hungry for hash browns. It wasn’t just a passing thought. All day he talked about how much he would like hash browns.

Sometimes I have hash brown patties in the freezer, so I looked, but I didn’t see any.

We don’t make unnecessary shopping trips (except to add pet birds to the family), and we weren’t due for a grocery delivery.

I thought about having hash browns delivered from a restaurant, but the idea of ordering hash browns for delivery seemed ridiculously extravagant. I couldn’t justify it—even during the first week of summer vacation.

So, I took a quick lunch break, peeled and grated fresh potatoes and mixed them with an egg, parmesan cheese, pepper, and salt. I heated some olive oil, dropped the batter into the pan, and cooked up some potato patties.

They smelled delicious.

He came to the table and tried a bite.

His face told me all I needed to know.

This was not what he had been craving.

My hash browns were a failure.

He went back to play, and I went back to work, and we didn’t speak of hash browns—or my failed cooking attempt—again.

Hours later, though, as I was cooking dinner, I reached into the freezer for some chicken breasts, and guess what I found: a package of frozen hash brown patties—just what our 10-year-old had been asking for earlier.

I couldn’t believe it. I thought we had looked everywhere, and it turned out that we had a package of hash browns hiding right in the freezer. That was all he wanted. They were right there—just a few feet from where I had been peeling and grating and mixing and frying in my hopes that I could create the hash browns of his dreams.

It made me laugh. And I couldn’t help feeling a little relieved that he really didn’t like the homemade ones at all.

Maybe today you’re looking for something even more important than hash browns. Maybe you’re searching for hope or peace or comfort or an answer to a difficult problem. Maybe you need to grate potatoes to find it, or maybe you just need to look a little deeper in the freezer. Or maybe you just need to wait and pray.

Whatever that might be, I hope you find what you’re seeking today.

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