Food has the power to make us feel loved and appreciated.
There is something about a hot home-cooked meal, served with love, that has the power to soothe, heal, and reinvigorate. To be handed a steaming bowl of soup on a cold day, after working long hours, cuts through the aches, the pains, and the exhaustion, reaching deep into the soul and proving comfort. It is more than nourishment. It is medicine.
To know that someone thought about you enough to take the time to put together the necessary ingredients, in just the right proportions and order, at the proper temperature and for the correct amount of time, served with nothing expected in return, can be a life-changing experience. It is a smile. It is a warm embrace. It is a much needed “I love you” at just the right time. It is perfect.
-Robert Van Valkenburgh is a practitioner of Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at Kogen Dojo