Is experimenting different from practice?

I wonder this because practice, while sometimes does not provide the results I wanted right away, I know that down the road I will benefit if I keep it up.

Experimenting on the other hand, (I’m thinking out loud here).

Experimenting usually provides a positive or negative result that can let a person know if they are on the right road or not.

I know some people “experiment” with drugs. But if you are a drug addict — experimenting time was over a long time ago, they found what “worked” for them and it became a practice. Same in cleaning up or sobriety. We at first experiment in different practices that help and when we find one — we stick with it and grow.

Growing up in Los Alamos, home of the atomic bomb, most of our neighbours were scientists. I was told their life work was experimenting. As a matter of fact someone could spend their entire career “experimenting” only to find out that what they were working on did not work. They never called it practice, because they mixed up their experiments often by changing one component of the work. Sometimes it worked and they kept on. And sometimes it didn’t work, so they changed something else.

I may be wrong here and need to explore this deeper, but a practice is doing the same thing over and over  again and expecting to learn and grow from it.

Experimenting is doing different things and seeing what you get.

I experimented in the kitchen yesterday.

I think each time I go in the kitchen and put on my apron, I feel like a scientist wondering what will come of my work!

My goal is to become a practiced cook. Maybe not an expert, but at least, an enthusiast.

I would say with a few exceptions, what I’ve made has been a pretty good. Ken and I eat whatever I make and usually we both say… that was good.

Yesterday, not so much. I blame the hippie at the health food store!

I wanted to make macaroons.

How hard is a fucking macaroon? Coconut, vanilla, a little flour and some sweeten condense milk. Mix together, bake until golden brown and yum, yum.

But, noooooo!

The lady at the health food store didn’t have sweetened condensed milk. She said use coconut milk. It will add to the flavour and is “just as good.”

It was not! The experiment failed. I feel that I wasted a lot of good coconut and worse, I missed out on cookies.

I suppose you have to experiment before you actually get to the practice of anything. But it sure can be painful.

Especially ,when it involves cookies.

Cream of wheat in the microwave is another big fail.