One of the things I enjoy most in life is cooking delicious meals for friends. A few weeks ago, a dear friend of ours came over to help my wife with some weeding, which turned out to be internal and external. While a good deal of the weeding was going on, I was inside preparing a simple, but delicious dish for my friend who loves lentils. One of the things I love most about my friend Maryanna is that food does not need to be gourmet or cost a lot to make her happy. It is usually the most simplistic of dishes like my tomato basil soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, my olive oil and garlic bread, or baked ziti. This particular night was just as simple, a lentil and rice pilaf with carmelized onions. What inspired me was her comment about how the smell carried her off the front porch and into the kitchen. She was already in love with the dish before it ever made it to the table.
Sometimes it is the way something smells, which draws you towards it. I remember a time when Zoe and I were out shopping and the aroma, which came out of the coffee shop, just made me want some of whatever was brewing. I remember telling the server I wanted a cup of whatever I smelled outside. She giggled and told me it wasn’t one scent, it was the cumulative aroma of everything they had ever brewed that was filtering out.
That sense of I want some of that not only comes from food, but sometimes through people. A very special friend of mine Hari Nam Singh Khalsa tells the story of meeting Yogi Bhajan and how meeting him changed his life. As he tells the story, it was not that he wanted to be him, but he wanted the peace and aura that surrounded him. He wanted some of that.
I have always told my spiritual partnership clients how as they transform their lives they would develop that peace and aura that would make others want some of what they had. Like the smell of the lentil and rice pilaf which drew in my friend Maryanna or the aroma that drew me into the coffee store, there is that feeling of I want some of that.
The other day I got an email from one of my online students, who I have never met, and she asked me how I came to this place in my journey. She said I want some of that. I guess for her I was that lentil and rice pilaf and something about how I come across online, in what can be a very non-personal environment, made her say I want some of that.
As I look back in my life, there have been people who have made me go I want some of that. By spending time with them, I didn’t become them, but I gained the wisdom needed to evolve in my own journey and to become the best person I can be at this point and time in my life.
I continue to seek out people who make me go I want some of that and am humbled when others say that to me. I guess I am like my lentil and rice pilaf dish, humble ingredients (rice, lentil, and onions) that have been seasoned with love and given the time to fully develop its flavors, textures, and aromas.
May we all have those in our life who make us go I want some of that and for whom we are the light which makes someone go I want some of that.