Onion or artichoke?

Upon meeting a new friend, and getting to know one another while the children played in the background, we soon ventured on the areas of our lives which were perplexing and mind boggling. It was nice we could talk openly about the oddities of life and the things or people who arrive and make chaos of our deep rooted ideas of the "way things should be"-should, ought to be highlighted there.

She openly told me she never thought certain things would happen in her life, and the instances that were taking place before her opened her eyes to reval the naked truth.

I knew exactly what she was talking about.


I've had a few of my own experiences in this area.

It's amazing how your ideas of what are "real" can be peeled away like an onion, layer by layer, slowly revealing a side to a person, family, or part of your life you could never see before the layers began to shed.

Maybe it will all end up more like an artichoke, peeling away the layers to the heart- the best part.

As we continued to talk about life and raising kids, she made the comment, "I wonder what I'll do to mess up my own children's lives." We laughed together, knowing our lives were all and all good lives, but there were still things we were both dealing with and hoping we weren't going to pass any of our own problems on to our kids.

Lightening the conversation, I told her my kids won't eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, or any sandwich. They like cheese quesadillas, or beef and bean burritos. Give them salsa and chips, they're happy. What has happened to them?

Even though the layers of life have been pulled away and I have a different perspective, I'm glad life can still be what we make of it- hopefully the artichoke heart. Not that it is always going to be easy, but once we have the reality wide open we can deal with it and hopefully grow as a person. Maybe someday my kids will learn to like sandwiches.