Family Soup

Gifts from my family......I guess just having a family is a gift. Like a big pot of soup with some things you like and some you’re not so crazy about. But you got the pot.....and learned about contrast, and what you liked and what was hard to digest. An angry alcoholic father might fit into the difficult to digest category. That was balanced by a mother who took meditation, yoga and trips to the Edgar Cayce Foundation more seriously than what was for dinner. My father, angry though he could be, was also very joyous, passionate and fun. So the whole range of spices and temperatures came through, from hot to cold in each cup drunk from him. My mother’s subtle flavors always took you to the horizon where anything is possible and most likely was. So when you dipped in for a taste all you could think was “out of this world.” Luckily the Gods, or myself, threw in two sisters, two best friends, along with my brother. A big gift of having sisters for best friends is you have all come out of the same pot...all know the ingredients that went in, though different experiences and tastes came out. That fact now makes it much easier to laugh at the less than funny chunks. And if one of us gets something caught in her throat the others are there for a pat on the back to move it along. Whether it was too hot, too cold or too spicy...it made a story....a life....and the nice thing about looking back with the magic of a present wand is the ability to touch those parts we didn’t like with a stroke of forgiveness and voila it returns a sweetness to the memories of a family soup and a thought of the richness of it’s gifts.
Mary