New Year’s Priorities
January 2, 2024
Closets
March 27, 2024
I have always loved the STORY PEOPLE and one of their artful cards has stuck with me for more than 20 years. It is called the REAL REASON:
“There are things you do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money & it may be real reason we are here: to love each other & to eat each other’s cooking & say it was good.”
Cooking is a passion of mine and spending time in the kitchen is pure joy. Having people eat my food and enjoy it thrills me beyond words.
Since the first of the year (yes, I am still at it, and it is mid-February) I have been cooking healthy food and it is delicious. The chilly weather has prompted pots of carrot soup, pea soup, bean soup, beef barley soup, chicken vegetable soup, with sides of spinach salads or quinoa chickpea salad and my favorite, homemade caponata. For many years, I cooked for my family, and I cooked abundantly. Because we live in a tiny condo now with a small fridge and no basement fridge or freezer for leftovers, food must move quickly through our home. We have a community dinner every Thursday night and when my work schedule allows, I bring a big salad or a pot of soup.
When we were raising our children, a dear kind neighbor would show up regularly, aluminum covered tray in hand, and say “I made a big bowl of potato salad, or a batch of chocolate chip cookies or a pan of pulled pork and I wanted to share some with you.” We were so excited to receive her delicious food and so grateful that she thought of us as lucky recipients. That is where I learned to share my abundance. Tasty food is usually welcome and appreciated and it is a gesture of love. There is effort that goes into cooking and the care taken to shop, measure, stir, heat, package, and hand deliver the creation sends a message. You are worthy of all it took to bring this tasty treat to life. I chose you to share the fruits of my labor. Food is love.
Can we consider sharing food and not things? Food that is nourishing and delicious and made with love and reverence for sustenance. With appreciation for the nourishment of the bodies that had the strength to rouse us this morning.
Don’t like to cook? Can you share a bag of the unbelievably sweet pink grapefruit we have in Florida this time of year? Or buy someone who loves to cook, a bar of high-quality bittersweet chocolate to use to make a decadent dessert? You may be who they choose to share it with.