Planning a big event is often emotional, as it’s over as quick as it seems it started. My father taught me long ago to enjoy the process, sharing his wisdom that the journey is the reward. So, for my son’s Bar Mitzvah celebration this past weekend, I took that profound thought to heart and tried to find ways to savor each and every moment of the planning.
One of the ways I did this was inviting my friends to help me bake for the refreshments served at temple Friday evening. Four of us met Friday morning in my friend Kathe’s double oven equipped kitchen, with the hefty agenda to make nearly three hundred pieces of dessert and a platter of fruit — brownies, spritz cookies and coffee cake muffins.
As we mixed, baked and organized the sweets on platters, we talked about my son, his readiness to stand before his family and friends at this momentous time in his life. I relished this time with good friends, preparing a dessert feast. And as we worked, if you could call it that, my friend Jackie told me that it was tradition for friends and family to bake together for a Bar Mitzvah and that it was something her friend grew up doing in her community in Long Island.
I was thrilled to discover that others share what’s so natural to me, spending time with friends, preparing food together, enjoying the process. Food binds us together, we know this. Preparing it together is an intimate way of bringing friends and family closer together, another way to create community.
The event may be over, but the memories will stay with me forever, including the moments together baking cookies with good friends.