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By Phil Callaway
ON my refrigerator are pictures of friends and family
and animals – and one of my dad falling off a chair laughing. The
dieter’s favourite Bible verse is there: “He must increase but
I must decrease.”And a few of my favourite fridge magnets:
• You’ll eat it. You’ll eat it and like it.
• Make yourself at home: Clean my kitchen.
• Coffee isn’t helping, get the jumper cables.
I don’t know about you, but I love the kitchen.
It is the heart of the house. So much happens there. Botulism and putting
out fires are only part of it. Few things bring a family together quite
like opening the fridge together and playing “Guess what it
was.” Could that thing that looks like a Chia Pet have once been a
cucumber? And that large thing, providing a sort of neon lighting, could it
be the pot roast?
The diner table is the centrepiece of family
discussions, announcements, debates, arguments, overeating and even
napping. Few things can bring a family together faster than a feast. And
few things can silence teenagers faster than food.
A friend of mine has a sign on her fridge: “Home
is where the heartburn is.” Sadly, heartburn is commonplace in
families today.
We grab at half-made sandwiches, then run to
appointments with scarcely a nod left over for each other. In the midst of
busy times, here are three items to place back on your menu. They’ll
help you de-stress your life and bring back the joy.
Linger longer. One of the
best ways to keep your children at home is to sew the tops of their socks
together and let the air out of their tires. Another way is to fill their
mouths with dessert. Families that eat dessert together stick together. So
carve out time to enjoy chocolate, and put on the coffee pot too. Drink
enough coffee and you can visit all night.
Ignore the dishwasher. Few
inventions (besides the remote control) have pleased me more than the
dishwasher; but recently in the Callaway house, something strange began to
happen. Our water got weird. The glasses came out murky, caked in sludge.
We called the experts, who told us it had something to
do with the water treatment plant – or possibly global warming. We
could call Al Gore, or wash the dishes by hand.
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And so we introduced our children to dishcloths and
dishtowels, and a strange thing began to happen. We started talking while
doing the dishes – actually communicating.
I taught my daughter the fine art of snapping towels on
her brother’s hindquarters. I taught her how to run real fast down
the hall and lock the bathroom door behind her. We hadn’t heard this
much laughing and screaming since the time my son tried to vacuum the
neighbour’s cat.
Pray together. There are
five more items on my fridge, more precious than any fridge magnets. They
are photos of our adopted children, the children we sponsor with the
wonderful organization Compassion.
Their names are Carlos, Joel, Dariani, Habtamua, and
Ndagirijwe (don’t worry, I can’t say them either). Whenever we
remember, we pray for them before meals. Each of these five lives in a
country where food is scarce.
Praying for the less fortunate helps us remember how
much we have to be grateful for. And it helps cure complaints about the
leftover Chia Pet salad.
Phil Callaway is the author of It’s Always Darkest Before the Fridge Door Opens (Bethany House). Info: laughagain.org.
May 2009
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