Every Friday we unite for five minutes to write on one word. Only five minutes, that's all we get, that's all we have. And then, right where we are, no edits or second-thoughts, we publish those words. This week, we write on eat.
Go.
Just the other day, he said to me,
"when we all go out and we're all together, is that a waste?
Isn't that nice, all of us, like that?"
Growing up, my best memories involved food.
It was how they showed love, it was how they showed that they cared, it was how they showed that they were needed.
And still today, it is how they show love and affection.
The come over for dinner and they bring boxes of food with them.
They have us over and food is everywhere.
They take us out and so much food is ordered.
Eating around a table, all of us together, it is their definition of happy.
Eating together, and sharing food, food that they worked hard on, or even just being in a restaurant,
"isn't that nice, all of us, like that?"
And so now, my relationship with food is very Italian.
And although I believe in moderation and taking care of your body,
I very much live to eat, not eat to live.
Food and eating, yes is a fuel for having your body work for you,
but it also brings people together.
It is also how you show love and affection, all sitting around and food and eating.
There are times I fall so madly in love with a meal that soon after my first bite I am already sad that it will be over because each bite gets me closer to the end.
There are times that I fall so madly in love with a place, a meal, that I want to hit pause on the night.
Grownups talking, everyone letting their guard down, no one being perfect, food and eating together makes everyone come back to life.
And that is why, my little faces, eating together means so much to me.
There isn't much I look back on and think, that was nice, when it comes to me being little.
There are so many times I have to fight back frustration with them, but food, and eating together, I get it.
It's the one part of me I will bring to you.
It's the one piece from my past that I can happily share and pass down.
Because eating together brings about laughter, and falling in love and enjoying a meal, not rushing through to our next "thing".
"Isn't it nice, all of us, like that?"
Stop.
It certainly is, "nice, all of us like that"! What a beautiful picture you paint here! And I think how this coming together over food has connected with fellowship---or maybe I should say connected the fellowship---among people from the beginning of time, even down to Jesus breaking bread with His disciples at the Last Supper, and his greeting them with that grilled fish on the shore after His resurrection. This is where we link, isn't it, at this very basic place of our lives? And how good it is to be able to do it with some leisure, "not rushing through to our next 'thing'! Really enjoyed this post.