What! a Burned Slice of Bacon?

Love Along The Coastal Path.

I have a love for cooking. It gives me the greatest of pleasures when I can cook for others and they seem to enjoy it. A clean plate and request for more is my greatest delight. Since moving house I have been able to extend the range of my joys. I now have a kitchen big enough to not have to put all my bread makers  and food processors away in a cupboard after using them. 

having to do so meant that I was reluctant to go and drag them out again before I could begin. Now if I feel like preparing fresh bread or a warming soup I can just drop what i am doing and go and do it. 

Cooking has become part of my creative process. 

Now this reminds me of my youth.

When I was a young , my mother  sometimes made  breakfast food for dinner every now and then. I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day, where she never seemed to stop.

On that evening so long ago, my mother placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned bacon in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed!

All my dad did was reach for his plate, smile  and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear ketchup on that burned bacon. He ate every bite of that thing...never made a face nor uttered a word about it!

When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mother  apologise to my dad for burning the bacon. And I'll never forget what he said, "It was fine, I love burned bacon every now and then."

On the Sunday when I was out walking with my father I asked him if he really did like burned bacon, because I certainly did not. In his own quiet way he turned to me and said, "I realised your mum had put in a hard day, she looked really tired. Anyway there is nothing wrong with a slice of burned bacon every now and then, it never does you any harm."

As I've grown older, I've thought about that many times. Life is full of imperfect things and imperfect people.

I'm not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. But what I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each other's faults and choosing to celebrate each other’s differences is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.

And that's my thought for  today...that we will learn to take the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of our lives and accept them as they are. Because in the end,  that is the only way you will ever have any relationships where a burnt slice of bacon  isn't a heartbreaker!

"Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket--keep it in your own."

So, please pass me the bacon , and yes, the burned slice will do just fine.