31 days || thirty: supper club + getting it done.

{photo via anton sugar}

I first mentioned my hopes for a cooking club way back in June. I had just gotten back from the beach (oh, how I miss it!), just finished reading Shauna Niequist's Bittersweet and Capon's  The Supper of the Lamb. I was coming down from a creativity high, and plans for a cooking club were the result. 

Four months and a couple dozen recipes later, our cooking club consists of five couples, some we know well, some we don't. Our first meeting back in September had to be postponed -- thank you, head cold that lasted way longer than seven days -- and when we reconvened, only a handful of us could attend, so I threw a random dinner party instead. It wasn't really a supper club, and that's okay. Now we're trying to get back on track, so we're throwing a soup-themed lunch this afternoon. Our fingers are crossed in the hopes that all 10 of us (plus three little ones) make it in one piece. 

Here's the thing: Celebration doesn't always look like we've envisioned it. Life's reality isn't Pinterest boards and blog posts. It's budgets and hectic schedules and "we're-just-doing-the-best-we-can."

Sometimes, you just have to make do with what you have. 

Sometimes, you just have to make things happen. 

Is cooking club everything I always dreamed it would be? Does it read like a chapter out of Niequist's book? No, I guess not. But you know what? It's five couples doing the best they can to make cooking and eating and being together a priority. And in these bizarre years where Facebook and online communication are overtaking the lives we lead with our neighbors day-to-day? Well, I'll take all that I can get.

Community is messy. People are messy. Plans are messy.

If you wait for everything in your life to be perfect, if you wait for all your ducks to be in a row, if you wait for the perfect meal, the perfect moment, the perfect friends, the perfect house, the perfect schedule...

Celebration won't happen. 

Life won't happen. 

You'll wind up sad, lonely, and your gifts will never even have made it out of the box. 

If you're waiting on something to celebrate, stop. If you're spending your days just pinning ideas to an online bulletin board, stop.

Make something happen. 

Cook a new recipe, call over a couple of friends. 

Have people over for a scary movie on Halloween. 

Read that book that's been on your list and share it with those you love. 

Go out for a girls' night. 

Do something.

Sure, things don't always end up like we've planned or imagined. 

But sometimes, if we're lucky, they turn out even better.

We just have to give it our best shot.