Instructions to the Cook

Months and months ago, Sharon gave me tapes that she thought I would like. I can't remember if she gave them to Paul (her husband) or if he gave them to her, but regardless, she thought I would enjoy them. Well, I never took the time to look at them, read them or even open the box. All I knew was that the title was "Instructions to the Cook". I assumed (don't ever assume) that it was a Cooking video.

Hold on to your seats.

I had the amazing honor of reading a Psalm at Sharon's memorial service. While I thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest and into the pews, I felt Sharon's strength there with me and I got through the reading with what I thought was a strong, clear and unwavering voice. (If the truth was less than that, just let me go on believing what I thought.)

After the service, Sharon's son came to me and said that she wanted him to tell me that I needed to pass along to others in the church what she passed along to me. Sharon and I had been talking about this for about a year, so this was no surprise, except that during the service, after hearing what everyone had to say about this amazing person, I made a decision that I couldn't facilitate a class like Sharon and I'd find another way to pass along her gift to me. On the way home, Jason said he had a thought for me. Tonight he told me what it was.

He said I should find commonality between cooking, spirituality and food and teach a class on that. The tapes Sharon gave me came to mind, I grabbed them off my shelf and read the back. Tears jumped out of my eyes. These are not cooking tapes, per se', but about the Zen of cooking, living life to the fullest, and Buddhist inspirations. This is EXACTLY what Jason had in mind. So now I have another path... to figure out how to pass along my gift. I'll keep you updated.

Peace to the Parisi family.

Sue