Sweet. Simple. Save me.

I want to share a slice of my dynamic pairing fit to be a match made in heaven. Growing up, my grandmother would have me to watch her cook. She’d always remind me, “the way to a man’s heart, is through his stomach.” So far the only heart I’ve one this year, and it wasn’t from cooking, was my own. While I don’t intend that that’s exactly the meaning she had in mind, I was able to reform the idea into a more meaningful connection, food and the heart.

What my grandmother taught me lead me to be a people pleaser and I realize, often times, we give more than what we receive back. If you read this in its entirety, you would have given me your time, and I may not receive anything back, not the grand prize winner, the wine, or maybe not even the satisfaction of knowing you read it unless you give me more of your time and share your thoughts. One thing about food and the heart is that good food will gather a community no matter what the odds are.

Now we gather online only to observe and not really driven to engage, and it is crippling the interpersonal networking of our very hearts. When’s the last time you travelled to try a different culture’s cuisine? When’s the last time you were able to attend a business luncheon or company meeting over dinner? How many restaurants have now closed their doors permanently because of the mandated safety lock-down and the fear of public places or limitation of gatherings that followed thereafter? What about this past holiday, Thanksgiving, how many of us got the chance to smell the collard greens, cornbread, and turkey walking through the door with warm hearts and hungry?

Now, not to get all biblical but to use as a point of reference, everyone knows the story of Adam and Eve, they were a pair. Your parents, or the two humans who created you, were, or are, a pair. Even you and your significant other together whether long distance, deployed, or quarantined, have vowed a commitment to being a pair and that’s not the fortunate case for some. You both are fortunate to have beat the odds of Covid-19 and its starving sufferings but, someone is not going into 2021 as a pair and this poses a cause for action for people pleasers, like myself, to prepare a table before them in the present state of their coping.

Now by definition by dictionary.com, prepare means to, “make (something) ready for use or consideration. To make (food or a meal) ready for cooking or eating. To be willing to do something. "

I love the word prepare because “pair” is heard within it and when we study the origin of that word, we learn that “pre” is a Latin derivative which translates to “before” and “Parare” is Latin for “make ready”.

As you quench your thirst on the very ink of my virtual monologue, I want you to prepare to pass this cup of wine to someone going into 2021 not worried about where their next meal is coming from, where they are going to live and sleep, or what they want to do moving forward in life and remind them that we need to get ready to help the ones going into 2021, unpair and unprepared. Prepare to make donations to charities and nonprofit organizations. Prepare to volunteer your time and resources to those who can’t afford them, prepare to teach someone a trade or skill asking for nothing in return. The way to a person’s heart is to help them in their time of need, that food for thought should be considered a worthy match in heaven .