Eat this Breakfast

When I grow up, I want to be like my friend Carolyn, at whose table I sat on the morning of Valentine's Day.

Carolyn doesn't just make the bed and set out towels for her house guest. She sets out books on the nightstand that connect with whatever event has brought me to town, or books that she knows relate to something I've been interested in lately. Sometimes she sets out a cross or other decorative object that I have given to her in years past.

She leaves a belated birthday card on the bed for me to find when I come "home" late after a long day at the workshop I'm attending.

And she sets a breakfast table with china, a Valentine napkin, and even a dignified cardinal to socialize with the little hoppy bird Valentine's card that I had left out for her the night before.

In these ways and in many others that go deeper, Carolyn makes love tangible. And I love her for that.

As my previous post, Eat this Book, talked about assimilating scripture into our very being, I want to assimilate Carolyn's hospitality into my being. Not just receive and enjoy it but find ways to imitate it, to share it. To take the time to think about another person and what would add joy, or interest, or beauty to their day--and then to actually make that happen.

What a beautiful way to start a day.