Sisterhood of the Traveling Pan

If I’ve said it once, I’m sure that I’ve said it 100 times…. I LOVE a good chick flick.  I have a group of dear friends here who all feel the same way.  So, once in a while when a good one comes out, rather than drag reluctant but acquiescent husbands to the movies for a laugh or cry, we put our kids to bed and catch a late show all together usually on a random Tuesday night when Regal Cinemas offers $1 popcorn.  It’s a beautiful thing…really it is.

One of my favorite chick flicks ever is the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.  Of course there’s the lovey dovey stuff that butterflies in your stomach are made of…young love and silly crushes.  But, when I think about this movie, the thing that I love the most is the bond of friendship that weathers heartache, and real life loss, excitement and adventure.  Friends who use something as inanimate and lifeless as a pair of killer jeans to transcend the space and time that comes between them for a summer.  Though they aren’t together in the flesh, their hearts are still knit and bonds continued as they pass a pair of pants from home to soccer camp to time with an estranged parent to a trip to Greece and share the stories they each experience in the pants along the way.  There’s the evidence of the pants, that even though they’re not together, that they still carry one another in their hearts.

Maybe sometimes, we just need to know that someone is thinking of us when we’re not expecting it.  That we matter beyond space and visibility.  It’s an unexpected card in the mail, or bringing a silly present to a friend hosting a random brunch, or a drop by during a week that’s been rough to drop off a Starbucks gift card, or a dinner in a pan ready for the oven that night.

A few weeks ago I was making dinner when I decided to myself, “you know what self, chicken divan is so yummy, and it’s easy peasy to double, so I’ll double it and when I drop off carpool today, I’m going to surprise Julie with a pan for dinner.”  So I did, and the random surprise of a dinner unexpected was such a fun surprise both to give and to receive!  I mean, when there’s a new baby, people bring meals.  Or when there’s loss…again, meals.  And I’m never more thankful not to have to cook or grocery shop or meal plan than when I’m overtired or grieving.  The gift of meals is honestly one of the best blessings ever if you ask me.  But I think too often we just don’t do the random ones enough.  Take that one extra thing off of a friend’s plate to keep her from tipping over the edge, or maybe…just maybe…surprising someone in a day with an afternoon free because dinner is taken care of.  Julie loved the surprise supper.

And yesterday, Julie returned my pan to me.

With this in it….

That would be a pan full of her homemade enchiladas in my oven.  She gave my pan back full and I wasn’t expecting it at all.  And can I tell you that on a day when I had a million phone calls to make, and emails to write, and appointments to keep, I couldn’t have been more excited to have dinner in my oven that I didn’t have to make!

So I propose a fun idea ya’ll.  Let’s start a trend…the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pans!  Grab that pan you’ve been meaning to give back to your gal pal for a while now, and put something tasty in it to return to her!  And keep it going!  I know for sure, Julie has another random meal surprise in her future!

Let’s love when we’re not expected to love, in ways that bless amongst the dailiness of life.  What do ya say?  Ya in?