MY. HEART. BE. STILL
Did he really just text me that?
I close my eyes, shaking my head, open them ever so slowly and read the text again.
I can’t contain the huge smile that spreads across my face.
“While you are out could you pick up a lot of broccoli? I mean a lot. We keep running out.”
The kid who only ate two vegetables until he was 18 years old. Every night for dinner, regardless of what the rest of us were eating, his plate had either carrot sticks or cucumber sticks. Only three, never four. Despite years of effort I could not get him to eat any other vegetables.
The kid who refused to eat the carrot or cucumber stick if either touched the rest of the food on his plate. Carrots must NEVER come in contact with chicken. All food must be separate. Carrots and cucumbers are always eaten last.
The kid who became addicted to sugar by the age of 3 because he went an entire year drinking Sunny Delight at his day care providers house before I learned what she was giving him. It would be another fifteen years before he was able to eliminate his cravings for sugar. Lesson learned.
And then…
We started to cook together. We started with his favorite recipes –if you want x for dinner, you can help with the entire dinner, not just the food you’re going to eat. Once a month, then once a week. And slowly, ever so slowly, he discovered the amazing world of deliciously prepared fresh vegetables. Something about the process of creating a meal from a bunch of ingredients - his meal, his creation - slowly wore down resistance to anything vegetable. Vegetables grilled, vegetables roasted, vegetables chopped so fine and added to Bolognese sauce you don’t even know they’re there. Vegetables with dip, vegetables in smoothies. Vegetables, glorious vegetables.
He called one day from college, “Mom, my roommates don’t even know how to make an egg, I’m going to be the one stuck cooking all year.”
“Does that upset you?”
“No, I just want them to think cooking’s a big deal so I don’t have to mow the lawn.”
My son, one of the worst eaters I had ever known, had found a love in cooking, of creating in the kitchen, of experimenting with spices and marinades and of all things, broccoli.
“Mom, the chicken and broccoli I made last night was my best recipe yet. Here’s what I did…”
MY. HEART. BE. STILL