Friendship Bread It's All About Relationship

Today I reflect on relationship and how it comes into play in so many areas of life.  My sister Kathi received a gift of some Amish Friendship Bread from someone in her life. Even though she is at a place in life where she does little cooking or baking she chooses to care for and share this bread starter... relationships will prompt us to take action. She shared this bread starter with me and I am planning to share this Amish Friendship Bread starter with some of my friends too as I have done with my Kombucha Scoby. 

This blog is about inspiration that originated from my Nana. One thing I learned at my Nana's house was that it's all about relationship. H-mmm you might say, why is that? Well when we went to my Nana's house it was not about "You kids just go outside and play", or "shoo, I've got a lot to do" or even "I'm too tired right now". All of those things were probably true as with so many of our lives but it never felt that way at my Nana's. Do I remember her lying down to rest, yes. Do I remember her life being full with church, friends, gardening, household tasks, projects, and more? Yes, that too. I remember my great Uncle Bobo driving quite a ways to pick us up even with their busy lives he was not too busy to do that. Thinking about this reminded me that we often exchange time to share in relationship. 

My friend Diane and her sweet husband Alan have been amazing examples of this. We did not know it at the time, but one evening in April of 2021 we said goodbye to Alan for the last time. He had been over at our home sharing relationship in the form of help to my sweetheart. They put up drywall for several hours after Alan had worked a busy day. We do not always know the impact of our actions, but this I know,"relationship counts". In hindsight his life was FULL of relationships that counted. 

So today is day 6 of the lifecycle of my Amish Friendship Bread starter so I am feeding the starter in preparation for more starter growth and eventually sharing. It reminds me that in life in order for us to have growth we must also care for our relationships consistently, keep it warm and happy, feed those relationships, then eventually we will have multiplied it and finally the sweet outcome is the ability to share it with others. Sometimes we share it fully mature like a loaf of this delicious bread...other times is is still in a stage where it requires much more maturity before it is ready to give and share. At each stage it is beautiful. 

I'm excited to create a delicious loaf of bread from this starter but even more excited to be able to share it again with another.