Manger les bonbons

     If there was one thing that was hard for me to drop as a convert, it had to be the double-shot gingerbread iced cappuccinos with whipped cream and cinnamon garnish I'd always get at the Occoquan bayside (back in Virginia).  Then the Christmas season came and I was reminded of that very taste, craving anything remotely gingerbread-y.

     Thanks to a very kind and loving friend, my gingerbread appetite has been quelled, but it left me with something greater than physical satisfaction.  Do you ever wonder if a gingerbread man and a gingerbread cookie taste any different?  Well, they do.  They may be made from the same ingredients, but they taste different-- regardless of what people say.

     Why would I say something so nonsensical?  While making those cookies, more likely than not, there comes little cookie cutters to make the figures of "men" in the dough.  If not, you just knead the balls of dough into little spheres.  Anywho, as the dough is stretched out, the metal imprint lays firmly into the spicy goodness, indenting its little shape.  Every time, with that cookie cutter, a perfect little guy pops to life out of the stretched out dough.

     Honestly, I find gingerbread men a LOT better than gingerbread cookies.  Some may argue otherwise, but this is my opinion.  I say this because when you make the cookies, with your hands, it tends to come in circles-- of so many different sizes.  The men, however, are uniform yet so unique.  We as people, when it comes to listening and loving, has to be like the gingerbread men.  With the fullness of our hearts, we are to fit and accommodate what they have to say into the shells of who we are.  We are limited, yet we are able to take in what people have to say and help them out to the best of our capacity.  While we do so with what we are given with, a tasty result grows forward-- the capacity of love is sweet to the taste. 

     For every person in every situation, they are different-- they have their own planes of problems, distresses, hardships, struggles, and worries.  However, as the cookie cutters we can be, if we take the time out to just listen and love, making sure that the person is embraced by our care, we can carve out a huge chunk of that dough and turn it into something very much desirable to the taste.

     A Biblical quote is fitting here.  A word or two from the word of God could suffice this discourse.  However, it's not the Bible that should persuade you to love your fellow man (it's a good way), but it should be of yourself.  Be the best you can be, helping others = helping God.