{melding}
Have your ever thought about marriage being like vegetable soup? Why, of course I have Meghan. I think in metaphors all the time. I knew you did. I just knew it. High fives, big cat. You come to the the kitchen complete with your own seasonings. Your own flavor. And your spouse does too. The stock ingredients to fill the pot aren't quite exactly the same either. Some bring okra. Some just corn. One revels in heavy peppers. The other loathes onions.
And, together, you are expected to make a meal. A feast forever if you will.Marriage is that meal. It's vegetable soup. At least I think it's supposed to be anyway. Think about it, cats. It's good for you. Nourishing. Chock full of nutrients to expend out in positive ways. Healthy ones. Where you have energy for exercise and for extending your life expectancy. That's what marriage is. A union for good. For growing hardy and nutritious together and for enriching the dirt around you.
Kenny and I are making vegetable soup these days. And it's important to note here that sometimes we make processed chicken nuggets and soggy french fries. Just because marriage is like vegetable soup doesn't mean that marriage can't also be like McDonald's. Freezer burned and deep fried all one color stale. Yep, marriage has spells where a swing through the drive-thru is just the way it is.
After 12 years of marriage, Coach Cobble and I are continuing to meld. Daily, we lug in the grocery bags of us only to dump them out atop the kitchen countertops and see just what is worth chopping to put into our pot.
It's collective. It requires time and process if you want fresh and best.
Vegetable soup delights in both the heavy and the light. Savory tomato bases with crispy beef rest easy right along side the light weight colors of the earth. Marriage does that too. Heavy are the times when money is scarce or job decisions are at hand. When everything in the house decides to break at once or you've tried for years to conceive a child and just can't. Light are the evenings curled up on the couch together with nothing more on your mind than spending forever right there in that twosome pile. It's the moments when you finish each other's sentences or laugh so hard at the other's silly. It's the child being born and the joy of watching your spouse bring life to their dreams. Heavy & light.
I love that soup pots are deep with plenty of room for extra too. It's smart to make more than you need. Stock piling the goodness of each other is important. Especially when those drive-thru seasons are lived out. And they are.My advice is to hold on. Pay for the person behind you in line. Upsize your coke even. It's gonna happen. And times of fast food will pass when both your intentions are for fresh and wholesome.
The best part of vegetable soup is the marrying of flavors. The longer the concoction has time to stew & simmer, the better the flavors become one: distinct and delicious. It's as if you can see each individual ingredient. Touch it even to your tongue and yet taste a hearty unity. That's the marriage I am after. I bet it's the one you're after too, big cats. I mean you think metaphorically about food and marriage, so I be knowing. I feel you. It's like we're metaphorically one here in this space. Particularly if you've read this far in the post, right? :)
Kenny and Meghan's Vegetable Soup
- Gather all the vegetables you love {onions, peppers, carrots, red potatoes, peas, celery, okra, corn, green beans}
- Chop
- Brown the ground beef & drain off excess grease
- Dump into pot one 29 oz. can of tomato puree
- Dump into pot one 29 oz. can of petite diced tomatoes
- Dump into pot one quart of tomato juice
- Add all vegetables and beef to the pot
- Add garlic salt, pepper, Tony Chacherie's Spice N' Herbs seasoning
- Add a touch of rosemary
- Add 2 cups of water
- Add one container of any variety stock {beef, chicken or vegetable} depending on your taste
- Stir and let simmer with a top covered yet placed askew on pot for 2 hours stirring occasionally.
- Talk, laugh, listen to music enjoy one another's company together!
