Dinning as a Family
Sitting outside of a coffee shop in Berkeley, Ca I overheard two girls having trying to figure out their latest dilemma."I am trying to not spend money....I have been out to eat I think almost every day this week. I think I will just have dinner tonight at home. What are you going to make for dinner tonight?"
My mother would have an entire weeks worth of dinners planned out and go out shopping either midday on Sundays or mid morning Monday to purchase groceries for the rest of the week. She would tote along my sisters and I through the weaving aisles of the over abundance of food, keeping an eagle eye on my younger sister who always seemed to get lost. Each of us climbing over the cart we would suddenly dart of to find some new bright tasty looking box of food we just had to have. My mother on the other hand had different plans most of the time. First stop was always produce and veggies (My mom has always had an insatiable love of most fruits, especially peaches and plums right off the tree in the summer; and to this day she will still eat her cantaloupe with salt.) then we would walk past the meat and dairy before careening through the aisles of boxed, canned, and frozen foods. It is amazing to me even now when we went to the supermarket (FOODMAX) and there are these aisles of food towering over you. All brightly labeled and promising "natural richness," and "home grown goodness."
I am torn by this image in three ways: One of my fondest memories is dancing with my sisters through these long lanes, pestering my mother as she is checking off her list of items to stock the fridge for the week. The second is my revulsion that even in California of all places, most grocery stores are over 2/3rds stacked with food from a box or frozen. The third is how thankful I was in high school when I discovered how fortunate I am to have always been provided for as a child. There was never a time where my family went hungry. Every night my mother or father prepared a meal for the family and we sat down together to eat. This was our ritual. My father worked during the day and my mother usually worked at night when we were younger. It was the one time even as my sisters and I grew older that we were able to sit down, and come together as a family. ( Not only that but we never seemed to be able to leave the table as we grew older without laughing so hard that at least one, if not all of us girls were rolling off our chairs and onto the floor.)
Overhearing those two girls discuss what to have for dinner, I hope that they go home and make a meal, have it together and discuss their day and there hopes for the future. So many of us are far from home and the littlest comfort of preparing a meal and sharing it with others can be the most gratifying act you do all day.
Best wishes and happy dinning!
My mother would have an entire weeks worth of dinners planned out and go out shopping either midday on Sundays or mid morning Monday to purchase groceries for the rest of the week. She would tote along my sisters and I through the weaving aisles of the over abundance of food, keeping an eagle eye on my younger sister who always seemed to get lost. Each of us climbing over the cart we would suddenly dart of to find some new bright tasty looking box of food we just had to have. My mother on the other hand had different plans most of the time. First stop was always produce and veggies (My mom has always had an insatiable love of most fruits, especially peaches and plums right off the tree in the summer; and to this day she will still eat her cantaloupe with salt.) then we would walk past the meat and dairy before careening through the aisles of boxed, canned, and frozen foods. It is amazing to me even now when we went to the supermarket (FOODMAX) and there are these aisles of food towering over you. All brightly labeled and promising "natural richness," and "home grown goodness."
I am torn by this image in three ways: One of my fondest memories is dancing with my sisters through these long lanes, pestering my mother as she is checking off her list of items to stock the fridge for the week. The second is my revulsion that even in California of all places, most grocery stores are over 2/3rds stacked with food from a box or frozen. The third is how thankful I was in high school when I discovered how fortunate I am to have always been provided for as a child. There was never a time where my family went hungry. Every night my mother or father prepared a meal for the family and we sat down together to eat. This was our ritual. My father worked during the day and my mother usually worked at night when we were younger. It was the one time even as my sisters and I grew older that we were able to sit down, and come together as a family. ( Not only that but we never seemed to be able to leave the table as we grew older without laughing so hard that at least one, if not all of us girls were rolling off our chairs and onto the floor.)
Overhearing those two girls discuss what to have for dinner, I hope that they go home and make a meal, have it together and discuss their day and there hopes for the future. So many of us are far from home and the littlest comfort of preparing a meal and sharing it with others can be the most gratifying act you do all day.
Best wishes and happy dinning!
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