Yesterday was just a gross and nasty day here in Metro Detroit.  It was Halloween, sub 50 degrees, the threat of snow was out there and it rained ALL DAY!  We were warned and made arrangements to have a Halloween celebration indoors.  I couldn’t believe how excited my boys were when I told them we were going to stay in, decorate cookies, Trick-or-Treat through the house, have family over and watch ‘It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown”.  They were ecstatic and I was thrilled to get to stay in warm clothes with the fire on!  May they feel this way every gross Halloween.  Halloween is my favorite holiday, but I don’t want to be wet and cold for the sake of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

Yesterday was also the perfect day for a mug of soup and a warm blanket.  So today I decided to write about soup.  The soup I’m writing about wasn’t just soup.  It was friendship, accountability and so much fun.  There was a restaurant by the church where I worked as the high school assistant.  No matter what you ordered it came with a trip to the soup bar.  Soup bar!  There were usually 3 different kinds of soup and warm rolls.  It was amazing!  There were also great waiters that we got to know over the years.

Anyway, the middle school assistant and I would go there quite often for lunch.  It became our place to go to for planning meetings, birthday celebrations, a break from the office or really just any time we needed lunch.  We knew it was a rough day when one of us would walk in the office and say, “Do you need some soup?”  Even if you didn’t need soup, you would go because the other person needed soup.  It became a thing.

I cannot begin to count all the hours Deb and I spent talking over bowls of soup, but I am so thankful that we did.  I learned so much in those hours together.  We prayed.  We talked.  We laugh.  I probably cried . . . a lot.  We shared in each other’s joy and sorrow.  We encouraged each other and we challenged each other.

In the words of Stymie from ‘Little Rascals’, “You only make a once in a lifetime buddy once in a lifetime.”  Deb is definitely a once in a lifetime friend.  We live 10 hours from each other now and do not get to go to soup anymore, but every once in awhile I find myself in Philly and we reconnect over pizza fries.  You heard me right.  Pizza fries.  They may need to be their own blog post.  Well done Philadelphia.  You gave the world pizza fries and are the home to one of the greatest!