By Joe Mazzella
We didn’t have much when I was growing up but I never felt poor. In order to feed all of us we had four huge gardens that we harvested every year. Mom and Nana would can the vegetables and fill up every corner of the root cellar. We also raised pigs during the summer to keep us in meat during the winter. Even with all of this, though, sometimes we would need to stretch out the food by having two days of beans.
Mom would buy a huge bag of the cheap dry beans and slowly cook them all day long. Then she would make her special sweet cornbread to go with them for dinner that day. Every belly was filled but there were always plenty of beans left over. That is when Nana would handle day two. She would boil pasta, add her special blend of spices, and then pour in the left over brown beans to make her delicious Pasta Fasul. When both meals were over, every stomach was stuffed, every heart was happy, and our family of six had been fed for two days for only a few dollars.
Looking back on those childhood meals brings a special joy to my heart. I didn’t realize back then just how “rich” we were. We didn’t have money to eat out but we had wonderful meals made with Love. We worked hard every year just to keep the family fed, but somehow that made us appreciate every meal even more. That is why I thank God for my childhood tough as it was at times. I learned so much about life and I learned so much about Love. It made me who I am today.
In the end it is Love that makes us rich. Love nourishes our souls just like good food nourishes our bodies. Love connects us to life, to each other, and to God. And the harder you work to harvest the Love in your heart, the greater your joy and thankfulness will be.