The Appetizer

I love ordering appetizers in restaurants or serving them in casual gatherings. I love that you can order multiple items of varying ethnicities, satisfying every taste bud and meeting every preference. Food brings people together and into community, no matter the reason. Somehow, after dipping and sharing, "nibbling" and sipping, you still find some room in your body for the full meal you may have forgotten you ordered. Then maybe dessert, too. With coffee. And some dinner mints at the door.

The appetizer is the gateway to the evening, or the kick-off, so to speak. It allows everyone to engage in conversation and laugh about the petty happenings of life's day-to-day rhythm. As dinner is served, then dessert (perhaps the coffee as well), the conversation becomes more involved and deeply enriching, perhaps circulating different elements of life or spice in each sentence. You begin to feel full and satisfied, not just from the eyes-were-bigger-than-your-stomach syndrome, but from the laughter or the tears, from the nourishment of conversation and community to your soul. And then there is the dinner mint -- the hug good-bye at the end of the night that leaves you feeling revived, refreshed...and with good breath, no doubt.

My purpose in writing this blog is to tell you my ever growing story, hopefully enriching your life with real and uninhibited conversation. I hope you walk away from my posts feeling that a small part of you has been refreshed. Though we all live and think differently in our own worlds, we were created by God to live and share in community. Everyone has a story to be told. And like everyone has his or her preferences for choice appetizers in a restaurant, all of the stories, poems, lyrics and revelations that I share will pertain to different lives on different days for different reasons. Some may be meant for laughter, some for questioning, and most likely some for tears. For everything, there is a season. I hope that, somehow, I am able to tap into an area of your life and provide some element of wisdom or joy that will keep you coming back for a fulfilling conversation. In this case, it's alright if your eyes are bigger than your stomach.

Cheers!

Jamie Leanne