We All Deserve Good Coleslaw

It’s only been during the back half of my adult life that I started tending to and nurturing the things I had previously considered to be emotional minutia. The smaller details of self-love or self-care. Healthy boundaries, gratitude, mindfulness, etc. Though embarrassingly, I’m guessing that most healthy adults wouldn’t consider those to be minor things at all. I also began trying to look honestly at aspects of myself that I could improve or strengthen, initially, with no other goals in mind beyond personal development.

What I didn’t expect, also embarrassingly perhaps, was that in doing so I was being a better person to and for others. I was also paying attention to, and doing little things, for them. Which aided in forging healthier and stronger relationships, and drawing in or attracting a higher quality of love from others, in many forms. Which in turn, helped heal wounds and rectify patterns from my past that allowed me to love better and more completely. It just kept spiraling up, and it started when I began to care and started paying even a little bit of attention to what I had always considered afterthoughts. A lot like coleslaw. Stay with me.

That’s one of the ways I can tell if a BBQ or any slaw-slinging joint really gives a shit - they make and serve coleslaw that has some character or is otherwise just damn delicious. If somebody cares enough to put effort and love into the things others don’t think matter or might not require time and attention, that’s worth hanging around for. That’s worth coming back to.

And it’s most certainly worthy of the same level of loyalty and love in return. We should all aspire to a higher level of quality in our condiments and side dishes. We’re grown. None of us should be serving up or accepting bad coleslaw—none of us.