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When Dinner Stands for Something Else

It’s easy to practice random acts of kindness for strangers, isn’t it? You don’t think twice about letting someone go ahead of you in line, holding a door open or giving up a seat on a crowded bus but are you able to carry over kindness to your daily life, to the relationships that matter the most to you? That’s more difficult certainly but to me it’s part of practicing what I preach. Oh, but I struggle sometimes.

A small incident happened to me yesterday. Inconsequential, trivial? Definitely. But a different response from me would have triggered an entirely different chain of events.

Mountain Man does all the cooking and he is a fantastic cook. He enjoys preparing meals, inventing new dishes and pleasing me with his wonderful concoctions. But, lately I have been craving Chinese food. My thoughts have revolved around steamed dumplings, egg rolls, wonton soup, lo mien, fried rice. Were you to photograph my brain, it would resemble a take out menu. I have made my desires known to Mountain Man on occasion and last night, he told me we would be having Chinese food. Hurray! He asked me what I wanted and I had many suggestions. So, off he went into town.

Upon his return, I eagerly ran to the car but instead of small white boxes filled with the food I had been craving, there were the usual bags from our grocery store. Mountain Man proudly announced that he had decided to cook our Chinese dinner himself. He had searched the aisles looking for just the right ingredients, sauces and everything to make a meal.

Oh, I was so disappointed. I wanted the “real thing.” I sat on the couch with my less than gracious thoughts while Mountain Man busily started cooking.

Dinner time arrived and we had a feast before us, yet it was not the exact feast I had wanted.

Mountain Man looked at me and asked if everything was okay. If it wasn’t, he’d be more than happy to go to town to get take out but he had wanted to make something special for me.

Time to decide my priorities. As if I really needed to think about it.

I took a deep breath and allowed myself to be in the moment with the man I love who had just spent several hours preparing a meal designed just for me. I praised his generosity, told him I loved the fact that he was always thinking of ways to please me and how much I appreciated all his efforts in the kitchen. And as those words came out of my mouth, I found myself relaxing and enjoying myself. Dinner was superb.

And, in return, I received loving words that will long linger in my mind.

Chinese food, such a small, petty thing, but I am thankful for the lesson I learned once again.

If you have similar stories, I’d love for you to share them with me and my readers.