How to Savor

The Lord has blessed us each with things and people that we love tremendously!

One of those things for me is a handsome plate of pasta! When it comes to food, our common thought about savoring is: take a bite, close thine eyes, and enjoy all the flavors and textures as you chew. Slowly. Naya learned about savoring food last summer. :)

Naya loves to 'savor' her food :)

but when pasta and I come face to face, I have to admit that my idea of savoring it is to show it respect by gobbling it up as fast as possible, as if the plate contained one terribly long al dente noodle drowned in heavenly sauce and parmigiano reggiano :) mmmmmmm! ...and yes, I am aware of my future relationship with canned "Parmesan", as I recently discussed with a friend. :)

I am also pretty good at savoring gift cards. Too good actually, as my husband can attest to. I am so happy to have a gift card that I will rarely spend one in its entirety. I just don't want it to be gone! So I find myself with a silly stack of gift cards, some from years ago, that have varying amounts remaining on them. 

But on a grander scale comes the issue of people. Friends, family. How do we savor the time we have with people, especially when that time draws short? I feel that I've jumped to both extremes as pictured above. 

At times I've been so preoccupied with an 'event' or tried to enjoy so many people at once that I've missed out on making memories with ANY of them! 

At other times, I've been so aware that I won't always have them that it's kept me from truly enjoying the time I do have with them.

Both of those tendencies have caused me to NOT savor.

So is there a 'best' way to savor people or things?

One thing I know is that savoring involves appreciating. I believe we learn to appreciate things or people as they naturally are, not in fabricated ways. I think for me, getting ready to leave a lot behind, I've been doing a lot more of this kind of appreciating. I enjoy sitting or standing off to the side, just listening to voices and laughter. Observing smiles. Watching people interact. And praying that somehow I will remember the faces and voices (and the flavor of parm. regg...) while I'm gone. :) (I forget these things terribly fast!)

But at the same time, I know it's important that I involve myself in some of these memories. So sometimes I will eat a favorite food. Or do something I really enjoy. Or interact purposefully with a fellow human being. :)

And sometimes yes, I just close my eyes and "chew" very slowly and thank Him for every piece that He's put together for me. :)

Fallbacks

Learning another language is exciting!! Well, it is to me, anyway. 

But there is an element to it here in my home country that makes it infinitely easier and tremendously less embarrassing: I can fallback at any time on the English language! 

As I asked my Cherokee language helper repeatedly, "can you say that again?" And "what is this?" And described scenarios about people 'doing' various activities so she could say the phrase in Cherokee, I realized how easy I have it now. When we learn a tribal language, we will have no fallback on English. 

Having fallbacks is a blessing I undoubtedly take for granted! In our country, we always have options, even when things go downhill. For just about anything!

Need some groceries I forgot or ran out of? I can run to the store any time.

Too hot outside? I have air conditioning (praise The Lord!)!

Have a medical problem arise? I can easily get to the doctor or hospital!

Need help with ____? I can call on any number of people. 

Too tired to cook? Frozen premade meals or "let's go out!"

Want to get away? Family or friends are around to babysit! Not to mention the many arenas of entertainment available to us!

The interesting thing for my heart and mind to process is the upcoming reality is not having ANY of those fallbacks. I'm thankful for the training and equipping we've received, which has helped us simulate and process some of these realities. We've learned about what to do when illness or injury happens. We've practiced a few weeks of cooking everything from scratch and shopping once for that time. 

But practice or not, it comes down to my heart, my attitude. The apostle Paul talked about learning to be content in any and every situation. That doesn't mean I need to deny that a situation is difficult or frightening. But what is my reaction and my response? 

I wonder, am I reacting like a child who trusts her Father? Or like an out-of-control pony who just got stung in the bum by a bee?

Lord, teach my heart to be content!