Recently, I was touched by my friend’s kindness. Then I wondered, “How can I care for others like this? How can I love others like this? I’d like to know the secret.” But even if I get the secret, just copying someone’s method, tracing others’ track may not be the real kind of love. So I wrote a poem to figure it out.
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Feast
What a feast!
Not at all.
Really,
it was a feast.
I’d love to
give a feast like this!
Sure,
you can too.
Really?
Then give me
the recipes!
It’s easy to
give out the recipes.
But you can’t
make a real feast
just like that.
I see.
What can I do then?
Savor well
each flavor.
Then imagine how those
flavors came to be.
Then cook
as you have imagined.
Can I duplicate
the same flavor?
Enjoy many feasts.
Then as to repay
the great flavors,
you do your best to
spread the flavors around.
As they spread
with rippling feasts,
the flavor will be
enriched and deepened.
Wow,
thank you for the feast.
You’re welcome.
＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊
Among many Christians I respect, Hachiko-san was the one that came to my mind after I wrote this poem. Then I remembered her blog entry (Thank you Meg, for translating) about the recipe metaphor. (Did I take-off on her?) “Recipe” represents God’s principles of love. “Bread” is the actual life lived out of love. “What people are drawn to is the smell of freshly baked bread… However, we often give starving people the recipe, instead of the bread.” (Ken Gire “Windows of the Soul” (a great read, btw)) In other words, you can’t fill a stomach with a recipe. She ended her entry with a prayer, “May each of us cater bread, not recipe, to this world. May we embody Christ with our own flesh.” I say amen to that!
Sometimes I feel like, “Just hand me the recipe!” Yeah, like great lesson plans, rules for romance, and outreach programs. Then I really get into just collecting the “recipes”, feeling like I’ve done the job. But the real way to go is going after “What a feast!” smile one by one, through a trial-and-error process myself, baking real breads.
By the way, I rarely use recipes in my kitchen to cook. I’m an ad-lib cook. Can’t make a same dish twice. So I am not really good at baking breads or cakes. Recipes can do some good too.
＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊
Feast
What a feast!
Not at all.
Really,
it was a feast.
I’d love to
give a feast like this!
Sure,
you can too.
Really?
Then give me
the recipes!
It’s easy to
give out the recipes.
But you can’t
make a real feast
just like that.
I see.
What can I do then?
Savor well
each flavor.
Then imagine how those
flavors came to be.
Then cook
as you have imagined.
Can I duplicate
the same flavor?
Enjoy many feasts.
Then as to repay
the great flavors,
you do your best to
spread the flavors around.
As they spread
with rippling feasts,
the flavor will be
enriched and deepened.
Wow,
thank you for the feast.
You’re welcome.
＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊
Among many Christians I respect, Hachiko-san was the one that came to my mind after I wrote this poem. Then I remembered her blog entry (Thank you Meg, for translating) about the recipe metaphor. (Did I take-off on her?) “Recipe” represents God’s principles of love. “Bread” is the actual life lived out of love. “What people are drawn to is the smell of freshly baked bread… However, we often give starving people the recipe, instead of the bread.” (Ken Gire “Windows of the Soul” (a great read, btw)) In other words, you can’t fill a stomach with a recipe. She ended her entry with a prayer, “May each of us cater bread, not recipe, to this world. May we embody Christ with our own flesh.” I say amen to that!
Sometimes I feel like, “Just hand me the recipe!” Yeah, like great lesson plans, rules for romance, and outreach programs. Then I really get into just collecting the “recipes”, feeling like I’ve done the job. But the real way to go is going after “What a feast!” smile one by one, through a trial-and-error process myself, baking real breads.
By the way, I rarely use recipes in my kitchen to cook. I’m an ad-lib cook. Can’t make a same dish twice. So I am not really good at baking breads or cakes. Recipes can do some good too.
