Steak for Breakfast

Steak
 
There are times at the end of a day that steak sounds like a perfect choice for dinner. A day that has stimulated or expended, tested or rewarded. “Yes, it has been a big day, I feel like a steak”. 
 
An opulent feast of warmth and texture, flavour and enjoyment. The steak dinner is an elite meal. Whether prepared at home, in a pub or at a fine restaurant this dinner is fantastic.. (A proviso is required for those who do not eat meat … perhaps an epic cheesy spinach and marinated artichoke pasta fits the metaphorical bill.) Either way, it provides comfort and satisfaction, a kingly dinner. 
 
It is however not an easy, uninvolved meal. With a steak you have to work. This is not a single-handed fork-only bowl of noodles, nor an eat-with-your-hands slice of pizza. You can't read a book while you are eating a steak. It requires your faculties …eyes, hands, concentration. 
 
Watch what you are doing, choose how much to cut, work around the bone, reflect on the size of each bite. Adjust, enjoy, progress. 

It is an active and engaging meal that is often multi elemental. Bread roll and potato, veggies and sauce, you can get lost drifting off on a tangent of spreading butter on bread and dipping in pepper sauce … meals within the meal … enticing distractions. 
 
The reward does however meet the effort. You have to cut and chew but when you do there is value to be realised. Steak is not for dinner every night. It is though, a sustaining and satisfying meal. Steak for dinner … it makes sense.  
 
Friends
 
Talking to my friend Anna is like eating a great steak dinner. You need to pay attention, and you need to do the work. There is plenty on the plate and all of it may be distracting and enjoyable. The side elements are a diverse and engaging support for the main focus, and that main focus can be very satisfying. Think and engage, eschew other distractions in life and be consumed by what is in front of you - a unique and valuable friend. 
 
When talking to Anna, a formidable Mental Skills and Ultimate Frisbee coach, there is effort required. An effort which is gladly exerted as the rewards are worth it. Anna often says that she isn’t into small talk, “So how is your life going, Mike Neild?” is a common first sentence after some time apart. A literal first sentence, before things like “Hello”, “Good flight?” or “Would you like a glass of water?”
 
Answering that question is a big first mouthful, and just like an overly ambitious fork load of prime cut, time involving and vigorous jaw work promptly follows. “How is you life going?”
 
Hopefully most people experience similar relationships in their lives. The person who makes us sit down and start chewing the moment you are together. Whether through a synergy of mindset, a long-lasting history of events and intimacy, or fuelled by a near fanatical dislike of small talk this person provides a connection and an opportunity to examine and reflect. 
 
These people are valuable and powerful factors in our lives. The special relationships we share deserve a moment of recognition and gratitude. It seems important to recognise and then communicate that gratitude within the relationships we value.   
 
Breakfast
 
Some conversations seem organically coupled to associated situations … topics for times of day. 
 
Late at night somehow seems to flow with the extended rambling style of discussion based around personal experience. Future focused and possibility filled, we can talk late at night as if anything is possible, as if everything that has happened carries meaning. 
 
The early evening holds a connection to opinion-filled robust exchange. Thoughts and ideas crack back and forward, tested and challenged in the energetically charged transition from light to dark. 
 
The afternoon can often mesh with laughter-filled story telling and recollection. Mid morning is for business; planning, organising and outlining. Talking the talk before walking some kind of walk. And breakfast time is for drifting up towards life and the day ahead - topical, light spirited and suitably non-taxing. 
 
It is nice to flow gently through breakfast and into the day. Perhaps “How is your life going?” might be a little jarring first thing in the morning.
 
In our lives there are exceptions to nearly all attempts at generalisation and classification. When spending time with some special people in our lives it rarely feels like the right time for gentle chatter. With particular people no matter what time of day it is, it is time to talk deeply. 
 
It is worth being grateful and maybe even sharing, that with some people it just seems right to have steak for breakfast. 
 
 
 
Anna can be found asking the big questions at all times of day at walkercoaching.com.au