Come Sit With Us and Have a Slice of Pie

Cruelty. It’s never brave or courageous. It’s cheap and easy. We all desire to be courageous when the time calls for it. We all want compassion or love and to belong. To come home and let the burdens of the day melt away. For the arms of those that love you to wrap their arms around you or your furry friend to pounce on you as you walk through the door, and to allow them to welcome you with open arms - to allow yourself to feel the love. To accept it because you are worthy of love. What the world needs now is this - connection, compassion, and courage from all of us. This is going to look different in all of our lives. My courage may just be walking up to someone and beginning a conversation that feels scary, and have to choose to be vulnerable, but your courage may look completely different - like public speaking or starting a company or simply choosing to feel loved. But if all of us are striving to lift and build up others rather than judge and hate - to understand one another’s story, to gain empathy and understanding this world is going to heal, at least a little. The hate and judgment and anger from everyone that is tearing our world apart, and possibly even you will never start to even heal a little until it starts with you. When we let that seed of anger and bitterness begin to get rooted and then eventually sprout it plants itself in every part of our life - mentally, spiritually, and physically. I know because it has happened to me and I have to continually, daily, pull the weeds out that grow in my own heart. I have to moment by moment prune my own life to protect myself from growing deep roots of anger and bitterness that makes it difficult to even get back to a fully loving spirit - living a wholehearted life begins with believing I am worthy of that said wholehearted life.

I ache and fight for this life every day. I fight through scrolling through social media. I fight through comparison. I fight through the news media. I fight through hurtful comments. I fight through hurtful pasts. I fight through loss. fight through anxiety. I fight through work. I fight through feeling behind. I fight through parenting. I fight through my self-worth. I fight to be vulnerable. In all things, I fight through my struggles to a wholehearted life - a life of wholeness. I am not fully there yet. I truly believe it is going to be a life-long journey, but that is the goal. That’s the finish line.

Putting a definition to it has helped me. “Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness,” Brené Brown writes in Daring Greatly (I book I recommend to anyone who can read and is breathing). “It means cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, no matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough.” Wow! This is huge. No matter what I do, or don’t do. I am enough.

As I stand, rolling out pie crust with my 8-year-old daughter I can’t help and pray and pray and fight and fight for her wholehearted life. I want her struggle to be less than mine has been when it comes to worthiness and living a wholehearted life. I watch her in such freedom and thrilling excitement as she rolls the dough out on her own. Her cup is overflowing by the simple act of rolling out this dough. The pie dough made of salt and flour and butter. That’s it. And It’s beautiful. So is she. And so are you. And so am I. Just as I am. Just as God made me. Just as God made you. That is enough. Now it’s time to live like that. And guess what? We don’t have to do anything because Christ already has, and we are perfectly imperfect just as we are.

Laura’s Grandma’s Peaches and Cream Pie

If you have been following along you may have seen our adventure with The Peach Truck. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on these gorgeous Georgia beauts that were freshly packed - and Elizabethtown has become one of the tour stops for the truck. Thanks to my friend Laura and her precious grandma’s recipe I made the best Peaches and Cream pie EVER with a portion of my haul. So good. just get ready to loosen the buttons on your jeans and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream when you make it.

Pie Crust:

1 1/4 cup of flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup of butter or lard

4-6 tbsp of cold water (add one at a time)

Mix flour and salt in a medium bowl, Cut the butter/lard in with a fork until it forms pea-sized balls - similar to the consistency of damp sand. Slowly add the cold water until forms a dough ball. Flour your counter surface and rolling pin. Roll out crust to fit the size of your pie pan and place in the bottom of your pan.

Peaches and Cream:

1/2 cup of flour

1/2 cup of sugar

3-4 tbsp butter

3-4 medium peaches sliced

2-3 ounces of half and half

Preheat over to 425 degrees. Mix flour and sugar. Add half of the mixture to the bottom of your pie crust. Place sliced peaches on top, and sprinkle with the rest of your sugar and flour mixture. Pour half and half until it’s about halfway to the top of your pie. Bake the pie for 15 minutes, then bake at 375 degrees for 45 mins until it’s a beautiful golden brown.