Free Danish

Greetings Dear Reader,

One of the perks of teaching or learning on Saturday mornings at my school are that one of the local bakeries provides us with excellent Danishes, muffins, and scones.  These are not just good.  They are some of the best I have ever had.  I have eaten lunch at the actual bakery and they craft amazing sandwiches as well.  One of the bakery’s signature items is spicy cheese bread.  It is delicious.  The bakery is an all-around a great place to get good food.  Each Saturday they deliver a few dozen pastries which the school pays for and leaves our free for those teaching and learning.  I guess I am trying to drive home the point that they are both amazing pastries and that they are free to our students. 

I have worked two Saturdays in October and on both occasions have witnessed some things that troubled me.  On the first Saturday I worked I listened to three students sit around the table full of free pastries and complain about the selection.  Apparently the Danish to muffin ratio was not to their liking.  The other thing that I saw that troubled me was an individual taking three different flavor muffins.  He took a bite from each one then kept the one he apparently liked and threw the other two in the trash.

Between the complaints and the wasting is an attitude that I know I sometimes must fight against.  The pastries are free so anything but gratitude for what is given is wrong.  Also, with the freedom of the gift comes the responsibility to be considerate of others. 

I so often build expectations around the things others do out of kindness for me.  I turn the gift into a duty or become picky about what I expect from the gift.  This is selfish and greedy.  I need to see anything that is done for me as a gift and not expect anything from others.  It is the expectation that is the sin.  I am the one who is indebted because another has done me a kindness.  I am the one required to show humble gratitude for what another has done for me. If I do this then both giver and receiver are acting out of humility and this creates a beautiful resonance.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."