Apples and Peanut Butter

Chris was one of those people who could make most foods look better just by eating them...and I don't mean elaborate dishes but really simple foods. One of his favorite snacks was apples and peanut butter. He was methodical with them. He would slice the apple perfectly, he always got a plate and a nice knife and sat down at the dining room table like he was about to enjoy a nice Sunday dinner. Then he would proceed to slice the apple, seed it and smear it with a dollop of peanut butter that he spread perfectly even. I don't even like peanut butter truthfully but by the time he had gotten his snack underway I was usually there saying, "Oh that looks amazing, can I have a bite?" That's one of my favorite things to think about when I remember Chris, he could take simple and make it special.

Tonight I was cleaning out the cupboard and in the very back I found a jar of peanut butter. Emily, Eric and I are a bit odd for your average Americans, none of us really cares for it and why waste the calories on something you don't even especially like. So I stood in the kitchen with a half eaten jar of peanut butter and thought of Chris. Then I got an apple and smeared some on, it wasn't the same. And that's how life goes...it's NOT the same but we ARE finding life. Watching Eric use the chain saw just like his dad, listening to Emily uses phrases that she stole right out of his mouth, catching myself dumping the grass out of the lawnmower in the same spot he did, even though it's getting a little deep there, all of those little things remind me that this man totally made an impact. Just like he could with apples and peanut butter, he helped to make our very normal and simple American family into something really special.

So the jar of peanut butter will stay in the cupboard for now...I need the reminder...not of what I have lost, I don't ever need to be reminded of that. I need the reminder that with care and time, simple things can still be special...and Chris would really want me to continue to make them so.

Grace for your journey and peanut butter for your apples,
Leigh