I am working on the Fall 2024 newsletter in which our garden season is described and the new Flower Essences for the year are highlighted. I always try to get this news onto the blog and into your packages shortly after the Fall Equinox, so I have a bit more time. I can tell you now that the focus for the Angels in new Flower Essences creation has been on supporting forgiveness work. If you’ve read this blog for long you’ve probably noticed that forgiveness has been a difficult challenge for me at times, so much so that I call forgiveness the f-word. In any case, I am looking forward to describing to you my Angelic inservices on forgiveness this summer, because I think it will make you laugh!
As I grappled with describing marvelous new Flower Essences serving a quality I aspire to but don’t always master, I had a thought about forgiveness work that helped me. I don’t think it is going to make it into the newsletter so I thought I would share it here.
Our long time neighbor Teddy Grobe was the reason we came to this property, and she was in the thick of all things Green Hope farm during its first twenty years. Living into her 90’s with joie de vivre, a chic quality indicative of her many lives in France not to mention her passionate love for the Divine, she taught me so much.
Teddy was a fabulous cook, arguably the most amazing cook of my whole life. The first dinner party I was invited to at her house blew my mind. She had an enormous wooden table sourced when she lived in Portugal as a Navy officer’s wife. Because this table was so gargatuan, it took up most of an entire room. At this party and at every Teddy party I would ever go to, the entire table was covered in a lavish array of gorgeous dishes. There were often lobsters harkening back to her childhood in Freeport Maine, but these were always surrounded by so many other exotic offerings that one really didn’t know where to begin.
Teddy made copious amounts of fresh rolls from grains she ground herself and croissants were a staple at her house, so bread at Teddy’s house was never a side but always a sublime front and center treat.
When desserts invariably followed, there were eclairs, trifles, crumbles and pies. No one made better fruit desserts than Teddy, and her hand at pastry was legendary.
She often invited near strangers to her table, but everyone was old friends by the time we rolled out of her house towards our respective homes. Any crowd no matter how dissimilar found common ground over the deliciousness Teddy’s food. This in itself is a reminder how food can move us towards harmonious community. Oh if only Teddy were still here to feed us all!
So here is my funny story about Teddy which ties in with forgiveness work. The ONLY thing that Teddy made that was not delicious was her hummus. Her homemade hummus was quite simply one of the worst things I have ever eaten. I have no idea why, but it was really bad. At one point Teddy got a bee in her bonnet about all of us in the neighborhood cooking different things for each other and sharing our offerings so as to make cooking meals easier for all our households. How I hoped Teddy would pick rolls or pies or her stellar danish for this multiple household sharing but no, TEDDY CHOSE HER HUMMUS!
For way too many weeks Teddy would come by with a tub of her hummus and I would hand over my dish with a smile on my face. There was no way I was going to tell Teddy what I thought of her hummus. Eventually through a decided lack of enthusiasm on everyone but Teddy’s part, the hummus sharing stopped.
Now remembering this has made me smile even burst out into laughter all morning as I made hummus for my family. There was no need to forgive Teddy for making atrocious hummus. Even this nearly perfect cook made mistakes. There was no need for anything at all but humor about her imperfect sharing. Perhaps forgiveness work when it involves people who have truly hurt us could be considered in the same way as Teddy’s hummus. Sometimes our best efforts are crap even when we are doing our best. I am going to try and remember Teddy’s hummus when I am hurt by a mistake someone else made. They are human and something happened to have them hit their Teddy hummus point, and I am best served by remembering everything else about them then quietly disposing of the hummus moment and just moving on.