Why Gather?
So, why Gather?
This community has been an idea I have had on my heart for years. Yes, years. It has been something I have dreamed of for so long and it seriously took me years to work up the courage to even start. I was worried I was the only weirdo in the world who read cookbooks and would drool over the memory of meals enjoyed years ago and would follow food photographers on Instagram as my serious celebrity crushes. Surely, I was the only one in the world that would be interested in talking to total strangers about their favorite recipes.
Beyond my obsession with food, something seriously clicks inside me when I am sharing a meal with someone. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, in fact many of my favorite memories of shared meals include pizza delivery or mac and cheese or making cookie monsters in college.
Somehow, when people gather together, something important happens. We enter a sacred space where our most basic physical need is satisfied and beyond that, a basic spiritual need is met as well. Connection. Community. The feeling of being known in someway.
When we gather around a table with others we learn about their tastes and preferences. My brother in law likes spicy food. My husband prefers his meat more rare than well done. I don’t like blue cheese. A lot of these preferences have been influenced by where you grew up or the tastes of the person who did the cooking as you grew up. You can find completely different tastes among members of the same family. On the flip-side, often you can find a shared love of a particular taste with a complete stranger from a very different walk of life. It is an intimate act to invite someone to your table. To share of yourself in this way and to open yourself up to others and their preferences or diets that may differ from (or align with) your own preferences.
I think it is so important. In this day and age of technology and social media, it is so easy to feel connected without actually living your life in community. It is easier than ever to go through a drive-through and eat quickly on the go without stopping to taste what you are eating. Our culture is not one that celebrates stopping and savoring. We don’t often put our preferences or favorites aside to try something new or invite someone new to our tables. But to embrace the differences and seek similarities creates a beautiful space I think we all need.
So, that’s where Gather comes in. The hope is to celebrate the act of stopping and enjoying a shared meal. That no matter the distance between our physical tables, we can connect through recipes and stories and memories and the shared bond we have over breaking bread. Life is happening around the table (no matter the format or setting) and that is something worth celebrating together.
Every month we will post a theme to our community page, and we would be so honored if you would share a story and a recipe that theme may prompt you to remember. We will share a few favorite submissions on this blog at the end of every month, along with ideas for gathering together along the way.
I am so glad you are here and I look forward to breaking bread with you!