It’s the season of abundance. It’s a season of smiles. It’s a season of celebration, of reunions, of joy and laughter. Meeting a new year is truly a cause for celebration. But as I was walking down the street, I saw an old man checking the garbage bin. He was moaning quite loudly in fact. I wonder if he had even eaten breakfast.
Back at home t
here was a large table groaning with choicest food. Our dinner group had decided to hold a New Year celebration together. We assigned different meals and even had a small exchange of gifts. It was a fun night. It was a wonderful way to start the year with people who had been like family to us. We had been swapping dinner for about 8 months already and we were very happy with the way things were going. We had a strong and open relationship with our children. Our husbands were loving the home-cooked meals every night. But as we toasted to more years to come for our dinner group the scene I saw on the street stuck in my mind.
When we met for the first time that year, I told them about the thought that was bugging me. That was when the idea of serving soup in the local welfare headquarters started. We decided to volunteer once a month, serving soup. We lugged big pots and pans to a makeshift server and served soup to our impoverished neighbors. This has been a monthly tradition for us since then. This has been our way of sharing what we have to those who have less. My dinner group has served a big role for this cause. It is also a realization for me that we should broaden our spectrum of the concept of a family. For me, it includes not just my husband, my children, and my friends, it also includes the people I come in contact with whom I can share what I have.
