Love Stories

Finding Things In Common

I just love cooking. I love watching Martha Stewart. I dream of being so organized “when I grow up” and think it must be true when she says something is “a good thing”. I also love to watch shows on the Food Network and fell in love with Paula Dean the first time I heard her southern voice say “now you take yur spatchular...”

Jim, on the other hand, only finds cooking interesting when someone else is doing it and he gets to enjoy the fruits of their labor. I’ve tried to interest him in cooking. There’s a Viking Store not too far from where we live and I’ve even dragged him there for a few cooking classes. I can say he enjoyed the food at the end of the lesson, but the rest of it, he could live without.

One day, when I was talking about going to another class, he said “Rather than us go to ONE class together, why don’t you go to TWO classes and I’ll just stay home?” I laughed, but I got it, cooking just isn’t his “thing.” His “thing” is music. So now I go to the cooking classes with friends while he goes to write a new song or do something else equally musical.

Recently, we sang a concert together in Michigan. The following day, we headed toward home with the plan that somewhere, toward evening, we would meet the Booth Brothers so Jim would get on the bus to sing the weekend. In the meantime, we would make a “date” of it. We stopped whenever and wherever our whims led us, we got Starbucks whenever we wanted and took time to shop at the mall in Indianapolis. It was a day filled with fun!

At the mall, I found a new kitchen store, a franchise I’d never heard of before, and just HAD to go in to see what gadgets might await behind it’s inviting doors. Jim graciously joined me. Maybe he was so easygoing because I had just given him the rest of my Starbucks...

As we browsed, there were many tasting stations where you could sample things they sold in the store. We were at one of the tasting stations when Jim looked at the picture of the celebrity chef on the package, looked at me, snapped his fingers, yelled “SNAP!” and then grinned like he had just done something really special. I was clueless. I laughingly asked him WHAT he was doing. He looked again at the celebrity chef on the package and asked “Isn’t he the one who says SNAP?” I tried not to laugh too hard as I explained to him that Emeril Lagasse doesn’t say “SNAP” he says “BAM!”

I’ve gotten a few good laughs over this incident, but there’s a moral to this story. The point is that Jim tried to find something in common with me. Even though cooking stores don’t interest him, he wanted to go with me and get involved in something I enjoy. His confusion of “SNAP” versus “BAM” will always make me laugh but, more than that, it will remind me of his love and desire to be a part of my life and, for that, I’m grateful!

I want to encourage you to do the same with your loved ones. Look into their lives, see what interests them and get involved. You’ll be finding new ways to show you care and your love will be evident in your actions.