Photo Credit: Joseph De Leo ( Rachel Ray Images )

 

My Son Elijah, Pumpernickel Bagels 🥯 and Learning To Go With the Flow🤷🏾‍♀️

So, I got a funny little story to share with you about my son on Valentine’s Day💝. So to make a long story short my mother and my two aunts invited us to what my son calls “dunch “ ( that time between lunch and dinner) on V-Day. One of the items on the menu was pumpernickel bagels with lox, cream cheese, tomato, red onion, and of course capers! Sounds amazingly good right? Well, yes, it most certainly was...but I digress, OK , so where was I ? Yes, pumpernickel bagels!

Anyway, so we all make our plates and my son, whose a rather finicky eater, chooses to stick with a simple toasted bagel with butter. His grandmother, who insists on preparing everything for her grandchildren, proceeds to take his order, toast his bagel, butters it up nicely, and lovingly hands it to him.Yes, folks I get it from my mama...she is the queen of caring, nurturing and pampering.

Anyway..so my sweet boy takes his plate and heads to the living-room to join my aunts in watching My Fair Lady. Shortly thereafter my mom and I join them and soon as what always occurs a lot of laughter and conversation commences. About 15 minutes into our conversation my son pipes up and asks simply , with a mixed look of surprise and contentment on his face, “ hey, what kind of bagels are these?”

My aunt Trisha, the first one to answer says “ they are pumpernickel bagels , aren’t they good?” With his head slightly tilted my son answers back hum? “Yes, yes they are" and then asks " hey,  are they always dark like this ? “ and we all almost in unison reply back “ yes”. Then...and without skipping a beat the next thing my darling boy ( bless his heart ️) says is “ oh OK , I just thought it was burnt! “ , he goes on to share that he was kinda wondering why grandma gave him a burnt bagel, but he didn’t want to hurt her feelings , soooo he’d just eat the bagel because, as he puts it, “ I’ve hard worse”.

As you can imagine the entire room erupted into thunderous laughter among us all. I mean if you’ve seen pumpernickel bread it’s almost black ! So... that is a heck of a lot of burn on one bagel lol ( and , yes, I’m still laughing out loud about it today). Ironically , it also was one of the best lessons I’ve learned about going with the flow of life and being patient with some of the things you simply can’t control; and , more importantly exercising tact and discretion in our dealings with others who try to provide for, care for,  and love us.

You see, sometimes in life we are  handed a VERY  large number of burnt bagels and although we feel cheated at the time and want to just chuck it and start with a new set of bagels, sometimes we just don’t have that option and we have to choke down a lot of burnt ass bagels.

On the other hand, sometimes the burnt bagel is not burnt at all and if we simply throw caution to the wind, go with the flow, have a bit of patience, be kind and considerate, and simply take our first bite it can be a truly surprisingly good experience .

I say this often and I mean every word of it, I am truly and deeply blessed! My amazingly beautiful kids continue daily to teach me sooooooo many lessons that I have falsely come to believe that I had already learned. Truth is , I am, sadly, still just a student myself most of the time, but you know what that is  OK; I’m good with it. I suppose that’s why I do what I do right? I care for and nurture, I pamper and gift, and I coach others...it’s who I’ve become through the art of learning to like my lox, cream cheese, and capers on a pumpernickel bagel.

May your pumpernickel bagels be dark, tasty, and always surprisingly yummy! That’s it for me, off to my other passion

Remember to always let your gratitude fuel your attitude!

Carol 

 

 Carol Hill is a mom, a long time nurse, certified professional  life and leadership development coach, a consultant, and Lead Happiness Ambassador and the owner/operator of Just Chill Custom Gifting By Carol.