Giving And Receiving Love
The sun is setting over Rodney Bay marina…. Anadi and I are in our second office ‘café Ole’, the café of fabulous smoothies, salads and banana cake!
They are now used to us being here for hours and hours… We ask for water with everything we order, and today they brought us unasked a huge jug, they are getting to know us very well…
And as we jogged up the road this morning to run, I said to Anadi ‘Oh good, it’s our barbeque night tonight’ and I reflected how routines get established that support us as we adventure into the unknown….
Relationships are formed too around the familiar patterns, the staff at Ole who know our habits, and could almost bring our smoothies to us without asking what we want… And the young guy we pass when we run, on his way to sell his shells on the beach at 'Sandals resort' who always says ‘can I have a ride…’ He says it every single time…. And every single time we laugh at his joke as we run on by…
We create the fabric of our daily life in this way, as we dive deeper into the rabbit hole… ‘How deep is the rabbit hole?’ It is important to recognize the routines and the relationships as part of the deepening of understanding and self love, rather than as a distraction… It is important that even as the routines become familiar, that we remain present and do not dismiss any extending of friendship or love, or a hand that is reaching out for help or one that is giving support along the way…
We bought new training shoes a couple of days ago, and while I was running up and down the shop to test my new shoes, Anadi struck up a conversation with a guy in there. Anadi has spotted he was wearing a shirt with ‘Windjammer Hotel’ written on the front pocket, and so he told him that we spent our first night in the hotel after our wedding day in Pigeon Park…
'I am the sous chef in the Dragonfly restaurant there… Come along on Thursday night, it is a special seafood night, ask for Howard and I will look after you…’
And so last night we climbed out of our taxi at the Windjammer Hotel, found the restaurant and let our waitress know that we had come because Howard had suggested it….
He appeared very soon, in his tall hat like Dr Seuss’s ‘Cat in the Hat’ wears; he was truly delighted that we had come. ‘You have made my night’ he said smiling from ear to ear...
We had decided to have a 'full works' dinner in celebration of Howard’s invitation… So when it came to dessert, I requested a little ‘rest’.
After a while we were aware of the waitress lighting something near us…
She then appeared at our table with two plates, a little portion of all four desserts on the menu on each plate…!
There was a pear 'something or other', a flambé pancake in some strong ‘on fire’ alcohol! A crème Brule and a coconut cheesecake…
On the plate was written in different coloured sauces ‘Welcome back to the Windjammer Julia and Anadi’!
We so appreciated the care and love that has gone into creating our special surprise, and I was reminded how the ‘codes of love’ can be so important to recognize and receive.
Food carries so many emotional messages; many of us were fed at the breast, but even if we weren’t, being nurtured by the adults around us when we were totally dependent instantly means that our relationship with food is associated with that formative experience… And, we celebrate with food, we share food together, we gather to eat food….
It is also an arena for many negative messages and our relationship with food is a hugely complex arena. But like everything else the more we learn to love ourselves and look after ourselves from this loving space the more food becomes a place of enjoyment, fun and sharing; and, as Anadi and I experienced last night, a place of giving and receiving of friendship and love and the joy that brought to all of us - Anadi, me and Howard….
