By: Joseph J. Mazzella
My daughter made her first attempt at cooking her great-grandmother’s spaghetti sauce the other day and unlike her father she got it perfect the very first time. Using my Nana’s family recipe she carefully mixed just the right amount of tomato juice, olive oil, garlic, parsley, bay leaves, salt, pepper, and sugar together and set it to slowly simmer for hours and hours while the sweet Italian sausage cooked in it as well.
When it was done she opened the pot and my Italian nose inhaled with joy. The smell was heavenly. 1 slowly took a wooden spoon, dipped it in the sauce, lifted it to my lips, closed my eyes, and tasted her creation. It was delicious, delightful, and a feast for my soul. With that first taste 1was immediately transported back to my childhood on memories of love. I remembered Nana’s food, felt her hugs, saw her smile, heard her voice, and basked in her joy once again. For that one moment time, stood still, love was eternal, and Heaven and Earth were one.
I am happy too that my daughter will be passing on the family sauce recipe to her own children someday. 1know that she will add her love to every pot and season their lives with her love as well. She knows that love is the secret ingredient to every good meal, every good life, every happy heart, and every healthy soul.
God loves us so much. God is love. And God wants us to pass on our love to everybody we can and in every way we can. Let’s have the time of our lives doing so then. Let’s share our sauce, our stories and our smiles. Let’s spend afternoons in the park. Let’s give hugs from the heart. Let’s pass on family heirlooms, precious memories, and letters written with love. Let’s season our days with caring, compliments, and acts of kindness. Let’s say “1 love you” with our lives. Let’s make each day a feast of love and invite everyone we can to the table.
