7 Days of Thanksgiving - Day 7

This is probably a cop out because I have been baking and snacking and baking pretty much all day, so food is on my mind...but I am so thankful for it. I know I forget how HUGE it is to be able to talk about food as a given, as a "hobby" that I can indulge in whenever I want. I definitely forget what a privilege it is to be able to pull out my cookbook, mull over different recipes, imagine what kind of pie to make, and know that I can afford the ingredients.

I've never known [what I imagine is] the gut-wrenching feeling of wondering not what or where I'll be eating, but IF. It's so simple...but I think so much of the time it's the simple things - automatic for us but a luxury for so many - that we forget to breathe a prayer of thanks for every day. So in that sense, I am incredibly thankful that I can not only eat a delicious meal with family tomorrow, but that I can eat. At all.

I'm also thankful for food because of what it does to people. It doesn't matter how bad of a day it's been or what kind of baggage you bring - it all gets left at the door when people gather around a meal. At Convergence, it has become a regular event to have a community meal for people in the neighborhood. Each person brings a dish - doesn't matter what it is or how much - but each person brings something, and we gather around it and enjoy.

See, people bond over food. A man from an art gallery can sit next to a single mom from the streets and they can talk about how GOOD that green bean casserole is, or how decadent that piece of chocolate cake tastes. At our house church, we gather around food once a week, and some life-changing, encouraging, and completely frivolous (but AWESOME) conversations take place over those meals. Conversations take place and entire communities are formed on Twitter about food between complete strangers. You can learn so much about entire cultures based on the kind of food they eat and how they eat it. I don't know about you, but eating a good meal automatically puts me in a better mood (that might mean I should be in counseling, but whatever). The thing about food is this: no matter who you are, everyone likes food, and everyone needs it. Simple as that. It's amazing.

Happy Thanksgiving.