We’re a Salad!

This morning at the ranch, I was talking with a couple of my favorite horses owners, Myrtle and Anselmo.  I usually speak in Spanish with Anselmo, and we exchanged greetings in Spanish. Anselmo said to Myrtle, “Ella esta Mexicana,” meaning “She, Connie, is Mexican.”

Myrtle looked at me with my blond hair, laughed, and said, “I don’t think so.”

This led us into a discussion of the different nationalities and ethnicities here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Anselmo remarked, “It’s hard to tell where everyone is from, so many people look the same.”

Myrtle replied, “We’re vegetable soup!”

Anselmo laughed and responded, “We’re a salad!”

What great images! I love vegetable soup and salad. They are a blend of different, individual flavorful foods that taste wonderfully when combined with one another. Plus together they are so healthy for us.

I love thinking of all of us on this planet as part of a beautiful, delicious salad that tastes better because of the variety and uniqueness of all of us. Every person has a valuable, important contribution to make, and we can see it if we just look deep enough and from a broad perspective.

Now apply this metaphor to your family, a blend of individual, talented loving people who each add their own special flavor and presence to the mix. See if you can use this metaphor to be more accepting of the people you love so much. See everyone as part of a fresh, delicious, colorful salad, and enjoy their unique strengths and contribution to your life and to your family.