I started baking again and felt like a person, not only a function

Dear Delyara, Not for a school event. Not for guests. Not because somebody needed something from me. I baked because I wanted to. That is what made it matter. It had been so long since I made anything that was not part of domestic management that I had forgotten what desire feels like when it is not immediately trimmed by usefulness. Flour on the counter, butter softening, music on in the background, the smell of something turning golden in the oven — for an hour and a half I was not only servicing a life. I was inside one. The cake was not perfect. That was not the point. The point was that I recognised myself more while measuring sugar than I often do while answering fifty practical questions all day. That told me something important. I need more things in my life that are not built from necessity alone.