Lovely lunch

"Lovely lunch, Mommy," Joseph exclaimed - a rarity in our household.  My 4-year-old loves bread, cheese, and certain meats.  He does not like sugar snap peas, plump and crisp; watermelon, juicy and sweet; or even fried potato cakes, milky yet crunchy.  And those were a large portion of the meal!

He did like the hot dog, though, sprinkled with cheddar and rolled in a tortilla.  And that is what made the meal lovely.

Ezra, on the other hand, gobbled the hotdog, savored the snap peas, slurped up juice with his watermelon, polished off a potato cake, and still asked for more.  So, I added applesauce to the smorgasboard of food on his plate, with which he was quite content.

Every meal to my two-year-old is lovely.  It is rare to find even one scrap left.  He simply enjoys food.

Do you enjoy food, friend, or are you picky with what crosses your palette?  How does that enter your daily life in other ways?  Perhaps you're hesitant to show patience or complete trust with everyone?  Do some people spoil your mood - even for food?

We all have moments of heightened blood pressure throughout the day.  Perhaps if we take a moment to balance ourselves with something lovely that heartens us, we will have more patience when the demand for it arises.  Take a walk through a meadow bursting with color, play a non-online game in which you interact with someone that draws out your heartiest laugh, cook up a flavorful treat to tempt the good mood in you...

What sounds lovely to you?

Rippling wine

Snot oozes out of Ezra's nose like a slowly-creeping glacier.  Forming a squeegee from my hand and a tissue, I gently scrape away the dribble, dab the clinging clots, and toss the wet cloth into the trashcan.  Sliding into the sixth day of head colds, we are all ready to be healthy again. 

Before colds, we endured an entire month of pink eye.  The inevitable domino effect applies to every illness that infects our family.  One person feels the fringes of the illness, then in a day or two another person falls victim.  By the end of the week, the entire family is suffering together.

Does the same ring true in your life, friend?  Or, if not with illness, then with relationships or events?  Do you ever feel that a single stone tossed in your general direction leads to a ripple of waves that crashes over your head, one after the other?

My mother always says that bad things happen in threes.  It does seem to happen that life events - both bad and good - tend to cluster.  Perhaps, friend, we should delight in the wine we can make with such clusters; share with a friend; and, toast to good health.  Then, whether bad or good, life's events can hearten our souls, just knowing that it is shared with those who care.