Soul Food

I guess I've heard the term all my life and I vaguely remember watching a movie about it, but I never really understood until recently. Like I've said before, I've been kind of living my life the last few years on auto-pilot. I had started to forget to look at all the little things and didn't really see beyond what was right in front of my face. I was so deep down in my own despair of feeling like a part of my life was missing, regardless of a husband or children, and trying to figure out what it was started to rule over the things I had in my life everyday. I finally have figured out that what was missing in my life was me. The real me. I had forgotten who I was and what I liked to do, things I enjoyed for fun, and most of all my creativity. Now that I'm gaining that back, my eyes have opened in ways that I used to look at life when I was younger, before "real life" started. One thing I started thinking about tonight was soul food. My family has always been big on having a get together just about every week and cooking up some food of some kind. If it's a game day, the food just consists of a bunch of homemade snacks to munch on throughout the day. Usually nothing fancy, but keeps our bellies full and content. Other times of course we go all out and get out the fine china and silver and spotless glasses. Still other times it's paper plates and barbecue. Tonight was one of the latter ones. Steak, shrimp, red and green peppers, and onions on a skewer for the grill, along with fried potatoes and onions, butter and garlic sauteed frog legs and of course; hot dogs and chips for the kiddos. As I sat savoring every bite I looked around my mother's kitchen at everyone else laughing and joking and talking about how the food was amazing but could have used a little more salt. I realized then, THIS is the meaning of soul food. It doesn't matter how fancy or easy it may be or what kind of dishes you use. It doesn't even matter if it's an old family recipe or a brand new one that may become a family tradition in the future. The point is that the food brings us together and it's something for us all to enjoy. Those are the times I will always remember when I'm old. The times we gathered to enjoy a dinner or barbecue, because along with that comes the games, the laughter, the kids, the love, and the story telling.