Stone Soup

Happiness is making soup

If you had told me 10 years ago that I would be where I am now, I would have looked at you like you grew a third head. It's not the whole adjustment of being a lesbian and true to yourself, or being a Mom that I would have really surprised me. Okay perhaps a little bit. But the true kicker is that I love doing house wife things and it makes me happy. BUT PAM you are a liberated woman and a feminist to boot, how can cooking and cleaning make you happy? It wasn't my choice to stop working, it was the combination of MS and Depression that landed me here. I've accepted my lot in life. But damn it making soup makes me happy. It's a weird thing I know. I'm happy my family could message me and express their desire for soup. My Non-Sexual life partner has demanded that he get the next choice and it is meatball soup. This makes me happy. The love and effort that I put into it (it's more love than effort actually) is truly appreciated. They eat my soup and know I love them, they call me up and request soup and I know they love me.

One of my favourite stories is Stone soup. The story goes like this:

Some travellers come to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty cooking pot. Upon their arrival, the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with the hungry travellers. Then the travellers go to a stream and fill the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and place it over a fire. One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what they are doing. The travellers answer that they are making "stone soup", which tastes wonderful, although it still needs a little bit of garnish to improve the flavour, which they are missing. The villager does not mind parting with a few carrots to help them out, so that gets added to the soup. Another villager walks by, enquiring about the pot, and the travellers again mention their stone soup which has not reached its full potential yet. The villager hands them a little bit of seasoning to help them out. More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient. Finally, a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by all.

Life is like this and it's not just soup. If we all add something of ourselves to this life it can make life wonderful and delicious.