Live and Let Live

Live and let live–even when it kills you, when the recipe is wrong after discovering that the eggs are bad…  when you’ve made it all for nothing, so the batter doesn’t rise.  Maybe the baking soda went flat.

Stick a rose on it and call it good.  Consider it not a waste.  Count it as a blessing, even though…Take another look at the picture.  What’s in the center?  Okay, maybe not centered.  Maybe the heart isn’t where you thought it was located, to start with.  Your intentions were good, true, and exact–but you forgot where to put your heart in all of it, exactly–in the very spot where it should have been, where it could have stayed.  Was it protected?  Perhaps, not enough…

What about one of the hearts that mattered the most, such as anyone else’s–yours?  Did it bleed during the process, was it red?–or is it still pumping purple?  Can it be put back together?  Every time.

Is the apron pretty?  Sure.  It’s gorgeous, and the waste line is trim.  Not all the cakes in the world could put another pound on your taste-test when after each ingredient was baked into a fine Sunday cake.

We’re losing sight of the matter.  Address the heart strings on the apron for a moment…

Who were you baking for?  Did he/she/they truly appreciate it?  Did ‘they’ bite the hand that fed them?  Is a finger intact?  If your answer is “yes” then maybe you’ve been baking and cooking for the wrong person or people.  You put your heart in the center of your love and effort to feed those around you, you gave all, then got the cake thrown in your face.  Did it taste good?  The heart and the cake collided into a royal mess.  It’s never really a waste, right?…  God knows the true intent of each person regardless of the cost, and the heart of each.

Live and let live.

Live and let live when you’re disgustedly hated.

Live and let live when you’re not loved, when you thought you were.

Live and let live when you’re taken advantage of, then discarded.

Live and let live when your heart is ripped by raw hands, then smashed and smeared into a pulp.

Live and let live when you’re disfigured.

Live and let live when a finger is missing.

Live and let live when you find you’re deserted.

Live and let live when you’re expected not to speak, not to say, “Get off me!”

Live and let live when you feel like giving up, those times you feel hopeless.

Live and let live when someone you love was taken from you.

Live and let live when you have to.

Live and let live to survive.

Live and let live when you’ve got to…  Did I say that already?

Live and let live when you’re bruised.

Live and let live when you don’t have a full set of teeth, when the blows have done the job.

Live and let live when you get left.

Live and let live when you’ve got guts, and they’re not on the table.

Live and let live when you have finally realized that all that matters is what you’re made of, the God that resides inside your heart–and that, my friend, is a full heart pumping the deepest, though brightest purple, in the center of the universe.  It’s got all of the secret ingredients to live and let live and still bake the best cake that your heart could muster to not mess up and do for naught.

Live and let live alone.  Rejoice, you’ve got all the ingredients you need, not a single bad egg.

a good cake