Changes and would you believe...

A friend of mine made a remark yesterday that I feel is worth sharing and analyzing to some degree. I told her about how I now have changed my Sunday habit that I used to have. Over on a site called PlentyofFish.com, there is a thread about a Calgary Sunday Breakfast group that for a little over a year I had gone to quite faithfully and enjoyed attending. Now, I wouldn't say that I was very close with the other attendees, but my friend seemed to think that I was "dumping my friends," by my change of plans. My new Sunday group, "Tree of Life" is one I find a little better in terms of being a bit better suited to me. The ultimate irony in this is that the founder of "Tree of Life" had another group that I learned about through someone from that PoF breakfast group. Is that destiny or something else? If I the "Tree of Life" group doesn't meet, then I'll probably go attend the old breakfast I had before, but it isn't like there is attendance at either group to see that I'm coming regularly or anything quite that formal.

I do wonder about how does one see a relationship transition from acquaintance to friendship. Can it be as simple as sharing a meal a week with someone? Or is there more to it that drives that closeness? This is what I'm wondering as while I do know some people from various PoF events, I'm not sure I'd say they were friends for the most part. I never went to their home or did a lot with them, aside from the Euchre thread as I do enjoy some good Euchre.

Today's "Tree of Life" get together involved us cooking 32 lasagnas for some youth in transition in Calgary. Hopefully the meals will be welcomed and be enjoyed by some people that could use a good home-cooked meal. The group of us that were cooking the meal gave me an opportunity to examine when I'm using my strengths without it being something that I suspect a lot of others would notice. Like wondering, "Is this a good time to be strategic?" or "Time to be a responsible achiever with this, right?" just as my role shifted throughout as I started cooking the meat but ended up being the spreader of the sauce near the end. It was a fun adventure that was my second Impact Kitchen project. As an opportunity to give back, I am thankful for it. I do have some selfish reasons to be thankful for it, as it gives me an opportunity to see my strengths in action and notice, "Oh yeah, that is where I rock!" in the overall scheme of all the cooking to be done.