Cooking the old way

I am cooking rice by charcoal right now. I don't know but cooking this way gives me a sense of meditation. I feel it's a prayer by itself. I use rice cooker only when I am in a hurry. My landlady complained of increased electric bill lately. I decided to cook by charcoal, lest she increase my room rental - again. A Php100 has been added to my rental fee of Php800 since three months ago. I am about a year and a half living in the room. I like it here because I am alone. She works in the province and comes home only on weekends. It's unlike in the boardinghouse where I had to deal with a lot of renters living with me in the same house. There's a grassy lot with some trees beside and back of my rented room. And the tweets of my feathered friends flying in the area are welcome to my ears. (I wrote something about a bird last year. It's a poem I titled Songbird.) And the dog back of the kitchen next door is slowly becoming a friend. O, my rice, I think, it's done!