Bean with Bacon Soup

Gently pushing the spoon down along the inside of the white porcelain mug, I scoop a small pile of warm beans.  Quietly enjoying a simple lunch on the couch, I suddenly feel myself transported back to my mother’s kitchen. Bean with Bacon soup.  Campbell’s.  Out of the can.  I remember.

So good.

Funny how some foods can bring us back to times gone by.  As I place the warm, white pinto beans into my mouth – no, I am not actually eating Bean with Bacon soup – I suddenly taste the comfort, the warmth, the love my mom used to infuse into all of our lives.

This will be the third holiday season we have lived without my mom.  And like many of us who have suffered great loss in our lives, I feel the hole especially strongly around this time of year.  It’s a chasm, really.  There will be no plans made to pick her up at the airport. No home-made Christmas clothing arriving for my little girls.  No puzzles or singing with Tutu (as she liked to be called).  No, this year – like the last two – we will celebrate without her thoughtful presents, nor her beautiful presence.

But the Bean with Bacon soup helps. Well, the memory of it, anyway.  Somehow it helps to remember that she was here, I think.  Setting the spoon down, I look around my living room.  A picture of her with the girls rests in a black frame on the book shelf.  On the piano, a photo with her and Lexi sits behind the music rack.  On the floor, some toys she sent years ago lay scattered beneath the coffee table.  And thanks to the small porcelain bowl in front of me, the memory of my mom has come flooding back. So I smile.

Because of Bean with Bacon soup.

Author: Lanny Ball

For more than 29 years, Lanny has taught, coached, presented, staff developed, and consulted within the exciting and enigmatic world of literacy. With unyielding passion and belief in the possibility of workshop teaching, Lanny has worked to support students, teachers, and school administrators around the country in outgrowing themselves as both writers and readers. Working first as a classroom teacher, then as a coach and TCRWP Staff Developer, Lanny is now a literacy specialist, working and living in the great state of Connecticut. Outside of literacy, he enjoys raising his three ambitious young daughters with his wife, and playing the piano. Find him on this blog, as well as on Twitter @LannyBall. Lanny is also a former co-author of a blog dedicated to supporting writing teachers and coaches that maintain classroom writing workshops, twowritingteachers.org. View all posts by Lanny Ball