Is That Banana LOVE Bread?

When I set down and started thinking about this post, I knew the direction I wanted to go. Knew the content that I wanted to cover. However, BIG HOWEVER, I played around with what the title to this post would be.

See, there's a story behind it. There's a reason I thought of the particular portion of the title - this is not some kind of ode to Banana Nut bread, nor is it a hidden obsession for this moist little treat. Sidebar - I know how many of you ladies out there love the word 'moist' so that is for you! Was able to use it twice there!

I digress, my struggle was with the title - a dear friend of mine who, as much as I love him, is just one big FREAK! He said with a hearty giggle, "hey man, you should name it Banana LOVE Bread, not Banana Nut Bread!" To this, I knew, in that moment, that title would only incite a cacophony of obscene and perverted comments. I know my audience people, I know my audience.

Again, I digress - the reason for the title comes with a story attached to it that motivated this influx of creativity and mind blowing thought that I'm about to spew upon all of you! You're welcome!

This story goes as such....

Several weeks ago I was sitting in my think tank (aka - the bathroom) pondering the next guest for the podcast, shirt designs (those are coming soon) and what direction I wanted to go with really pushing this trek we are all on in Navigating The Intentional Life. I might have also been distracted by all the wonderful memes the interwebs provide us on a daily basis - it never disappoints!

But this think tank session was interrupted when I heard my oldest open the front door, followed by a quick exchange of muffled voices and the door closing. Quickly snapping into action, I exited the think tank to see my oldest standing at the island in our kitchen with an exquisite paper plate covered in aluminum foil that, clearly, had been aggressively torn open and exposing it's contents.

Inside the al-a-miny-um (spelt in the British way of saying the word for my British supporters) carrier set TWO beautiful loaves of the warmest, most moist Banana Nut Bread I have ever seen. They were, very clearly straight out of the oven.

My oldest stood there in a coma-like trance, completely enamored by the gorgeousness of the delicacy that set before him on our lowly kitchen island. Wiping a bit of drool from his chin he said, "Dad, look at this!"... Removing a smidge of drool from my own face, I asked, "Where in the world did that come from?"

This is when he stoically held up a blue bit of sticky note that simply read, "From Amy, Apt ####". I was amazed. I've lived in this apartment community now for 4 years and I've had one, maybe two neighbors that brought us some kind of goodies. Cookies one time and, I must say, they were absolutely horrific. So we didn't talk much to that neighbor. We've been invited to crawfish boils (so damn overrated, but South Texans believe that Jesus turned water into wine and then served massive amounts of Mud Bugs to his people...)

But never before had a neighbor, whom we had barely ever spoken to, brought us such a sweet looking bit of morsels as the ones that laid before us. As if time stood still, we slowly cut two pieces of the bread - the only way I can describe this is that it was like an orgasm for your mouth. It was heaven descending down into our world like two shimmering, warm loaves of angelic bread loaves, cleansing all of our sins with each bite.

Needless to say, the bread was absolutely amazing. It lasted all of one night before we had destroyed it all and consumed it's amazing contents.

To be honest, my vanity got the best of me at first. I couldn't help but wonder what the motive was for this woman to bring us the bread....? Was this some sort of way to seduce me? I mean, don't get me wrong, it could work because this kid LOVES to eat! I also love banana nut bread so it sort of added up. But, I quickly dropped this preposterous thought process and settled with a simple truth - this human being was simply being kind.

So, what did we do about this amazing and delicious act of kindness? As I'm sure you're all wondering what we did to say THANK YOU... I loaded up the boys in the car and we made our way to HEB. Mind you, I am not a baker, nor am I an amazing cook. I didn't think a Thank You card was suffice enough. Instead, we grabbed us up a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough and we got our scrauny butts back to the apt to bake us up a big ole batch of cookies.

This took us all of 30 mins or so - at which point we marched down stairs, rapped on said neighbors door and stood there, in silence, staring expectantly at the hunter green door, waiting for the, what would only be, a grateful recipient of our special treats! Mind you, none of us thought to try one of the cookies, but, ya know, what the hell? We live life on the edge and just assumed they were as life changing as her offering!

Our neighbor opened the door, surprise was definitely evident on her face. We exclaimed that we were very grateful for her kindness and that it was amazing! She accepted our gift of gratitude and that was that! It was anti-climatic to say the least. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but that was that. We haven't seen her much at all since then - thinking on that small fact now, perhaps that means the cookies weren't so great.....??

Either way, the title of this was a fun one - never mind my gutter minded friends (I probably need new ones anyway) that banana nut bread was absolutely banana LOVE bread. Her simple act prompted myself and my boys to snap into action to return the kindness WITH kindness!

Had she not done this, the experience the boys and I got to have with getting those cookies..... Let me back up - the experience we got to share in our complete and utter shock of RECEIVING the bread was fantastic in and of itself. The direct result of that was us laughing and playing around while we were baking those cookies. Something the three of us will not forget anytime soon.

She may not know, nor did she probably even think that it would have such an affect on us. But perhaps all she cared about was taking some bread to three guys upstairs that don't get that kind of treatment very often. I haven't the slightest clue how to make damned banana nut bread and I'm sure she could tell! It's probably noticeable how often we come home with Panda Express.

Subsequently, that moment got the three of us thinking more about what we could do for others. It spawned a conversation about how my oldest wants to help the homeless (we see a lot of them around Houston and he is always asking me for money to give them... pain in the ass...). It got my youngest talking about "paying it forward" as he had heard of this in his 3rd grade class. We started thinking of things that we can do together to give back - through our involvement in church, through cub scouts, through the different events that we could take part in, in our own community.

Our neighbor opened up an opportunity for me as a dad to think about the example I'm providing my boys about what it means to provide acts of service and selflessness. To give without any expectation for a return or accolade.

All this and it was just some loaves of banana nut bread, but I'm forever grateful for what that damned love bread did for me and my children.

And.....

What I know, what I took from this is that we could all use some more Banana Love Bread in our lives. We could all use the motivation to provide others with that moist kind of caring that only a simple act of selfless kindness provides those around us.

J.L. Copeland