Unlike my husband who lived to eat, food is not high on my priority list.
I recall years ago, the first time I left my teenage daughters to attend an out of town event. “Eat properly and behave yourselves” I told them. “Don’t worry,” they replied, ”we know The Canada Food Rules.” And yes, they did. Good nutrition got pumped into them at an early age. I had been a high energy child, and ate anything I could find that was sweet. It is still costing me in dental bills.
But I doubt if they would request any special home-cooked meals if they visited. Maybe “Streudels”, a pork and dumpling dish I learned to make from Harry’s mom. He loved her cooking and I tried to copy some of her recipes (failing miserably, most of the time.)
When I think of the hundreds, well more like thousands of meals I have prepared I get exhausted. Once Harry asked me what I wanted more than anything in the world and I said “A live-in cook!”
When I think of the things I have placed on a plate through the years they are as varied as the friends I have had through the years. Much as you choose a menu, you choose your friends.
And they nourish you in a similar fashion. God seems to know when you need certain friends in your life…a childhood companion to hold all your secrets, a teen-age fellow student to share the complications of growing up…friends at work, friends at play, church friends and those special friends who love and cherish you, regardless of your flaws.
One thing widows (and widowers too) need are listening friends…
Find a friend that listens
Find a friend that cares
Find a friend that comforts,
As you wipe away your tears.
When the day is over
And the night is near
The memory of that friendship
Is one you’ll hold most dear.
Today was a bit of a down day…overcast, cool and lonely and then the phone began to ring…an invitation to go to a gardening shop, a car ride on Monday to see the canola fields, a call from a sick shut-in (she is getting better.) All were from friends God has chosen for me.
So today I did taste the friendships that God had placed in my life. He knew exactly what I needed to nourish and feed my soul.
