Nourishing hearts as faithfully as we nourish our tables.
Welcome to Season & Savor Sunday — because feeding our bodies is not enough.
Welcome, and I mean that. Hearing from so many of you about what this little corner of the internet means to you, well, it means everything right back.
I’m still coming down from a beautiful weekend in Montana. Long-time friends, a wedding, and honestly? Some of the best food I’ve ever had at a celebration. Wood-fired pizzas and fresh salads, served on actual china. No rubber chicken in sight. But it wasn’t really about the food, was it? It never is.
What stayed with me was watching generations crammed into a rental kitchen, everyone pitching in, someone always “helping” by taste-testing (I see you, honey), young guys eating their weight in tacos, laughter bouncing off every wall. The whole weekend had this undercurrent of something sacred. A marriage about to begin. People who had loved each other through decades, showing up again. That’s not nothing. That’s everything.
It got me thinking about friendships. Real ones. And if you’ve been here the last few weeks, you know this topic has had a hold on me. We’ve talked about what it means to be a good friend, gone deeper into the personal side of friendship, and even sat with the harder reality that some friendships are only for a season. Today feels like the natural next step.
Some friendships feel instant, kindred spirits from the first conversation. Others take years and real effort, and those are often the ones worth the most. But here’s what I want to ask you today, gently, because I’m asking myself too: how are yours doing?
Are you investing? Being invested in? Is there a friendship that needs a little tending, or maybe even a hard conversation?
Because here’s the thing. People hurt us. Friends hurt us. And most of the time, if you look a little closer, something deeper is going on with them. A hard season. Something they haven’t found words for yet. Before you pull back, consider pressing in instead. Let things cool, then circle back with a simple, “Hey, how are you really doing?”
We can’t know what someone is carrying unless we ask. And we can’t expect others to be vulnerable if we won’t go first. Drop the pride. Loosen the grip on being right. (That last one? Still working on it myself.)
There’s an old saying that pride comes before a fall, and I believe it. So let’s be the people who lead with grace instead. The ones who give the benefit of the doubt, who put others first, who the world looks at and thinks, there’s something different about them. Be the friend you want to have. The spouse you want yours to be. The coworker who makes the whole room better.
“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.” ~ Philippians 2:3 (NLT)
Be the person made in the image of Someone Holy and good. Yeah, be that person.
Next week I have something really good about going the extra mile, and I think it’s going to hit. Come back for it.
With grace at the table and beyond
I read and respond to every email and comment, and I’m so thankful for each of you who comes back week after week. It means more than you know when you make my recipes and share your thoughts 💚
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