Renata's Kitchen Wants YOU!

Heroin.

There, I got you to the kitchen table with photos of a roast turkey, and a beautiful girl.

Can we please talk about the heroin that some of our beautiful girls and boys in this great city of ours have tried just once?

One choice, one day, one unlucky moment with heroin has ruined the chances of ever having another Thanksgiving dinner for some families in Elmhurst.

How can this be?

We are not afraid of hard work (or a hard workout.)

The kids always come first.

Our houses of worship are filled with accidental saints whose coaches always have their backs.

The schools serve the special needs of our community, and don’t care if that isn’t represented well on scores compared to some of our more privileged neighbors.

Our cops serve us...SO well.

So how on earth did we lose a beautiful young Elmhurst woman to heroin addiction this week?

I don’t know for a fact if she got her heroin here.

I do know for a fact that she grew up here in the same schools as my daughter. She took the same classes. She had the same bright, hard-working, joyful kinda mother that I like to think I am on a good day.

Trying to write about “Planning Your Thanksgiving Dinner” seemed fruitless and inconsequential this week as I wept and prayed for this girl and her family after a heroin overdose.

Choking on a sip of tea, I realized that this could be my beautiful girl I am waking up without today.

I am sick of complaining. I am sick of self-protecting. I am sick of playing defense. My kids are okay, right?

Wrong.

It’s not okay.

Not because this young woman was beautiful. Not because this young woman was intelligent. Not because this young woman was from a “good Elmhurst family” (whatever that means).

It’s not okay for me because if there is one thing in life I can’t stand, it’s a half-ass job. Surely we can do better than this with our response to heroin.

So let’s not cry and weep and pray our way out of this one, then forget about it and roast our brined, free-range turkeys, and thank God it isn’t us.

It IS us. Heroin in Elmhurst is us. It’s our problem. It’s our chance to manage it. But we can’t manage a problem we don’t understand. And we can’t understand until we seek first to understand.

So throw away your social media rage, and face the wooden spoon if you have nothing to say that doesn’t ASK a question, rather than OFFER a quick solution.

Ask yourself what you can do to help.

Ask your children where the heroin is coming from.

Ask your schools how you can support them.

Ask your police force if you can serve them in any small way.

When you get answers, stop and LISTEN.

Don’t calculate a simple solution. If the solution were that simple, we wouldn’t be here right now.

Don’t gossip. Gossip is how we squander God’s gift by blathering without bearing fruit.

Don’t judge a single, solitary soul. This could be you, me, or any one of us.

Don’t. Give. Up. Persistence is the most important tool in the mechanic’s box.

Do offer compassion to your family of friends who are in pain today in the great city of Elmhurst.

Do keep asking questions.

Do brainstorm with your police force, your friends, your schools, and your families.

Sit at the kitchen table tonight and talk.

But mostly, please just listen.

The best thing in the whole world about having kids is that they teach us so much. If we get out of the way and let them talk, who knows what we could learn?

You may be asking yourself,

“What on earth is a food writer and the daughter of a sausage maker doing writing about a heroin problem in the great city of Elmhurst?”

She is a mom, first and foremost.

She is a tax payer who isn’t afraid of what the neighbors or the press might think.

She hears the words of her own mother whose favorite phrase for creative problem solving was always,

“There is more than one way to skin a cat.” What Mom meant was that there is always another way to look at a problem. Keep searching from different angles.

Mom knew she couldn’t solve all the problems. But she was gonna die trying. And she is NEVER going down without a fight. So I encourage you to be like my mom. SEE from different angles.

Look around.

Listen at the wheel of that minivan.

Ask questions.

Discern.

Be brave.

And never, ever, ever give up.

Thanks be to God for the beautiful young woman who started her life here with us.

Thanks be to God for her beautiful family.

Thanks be to God for the kitchen table.

Thanks be to God for the seeds, pits, stems and bruises that He seems to make into our daily bread.

If I can serve you in any way, even if it is just by browsing recipes on www.renataskitchen.com, please let me know.

WRITE:
renata@renataskitchen.com with any ideas you have to share.

GO: The League of Women’s Voters Event, “Heroin, The Human Story” on November 19th--
Dupage County Area League Event:
Sponsored by LWV-Wheaton, Roselle/Bloomingdale, Downers Grove/Woodridge/Lisle, and Elmhurst

Date: Thursday, November 19 at Wheaton Park District
Time: 7:00 pm meet and greet; 7:30 - 9:00 pm program
Topic: Heroin, The Human Story

For more information follow this link to The League of Women’s Voters: http://lwvrb.org

VISIT: The LTM Foundation, the website dedicated to supporting the problem of heroin addiction. Read the letter of the mom who lost her sunny son to a heroin overdose. http://ltmfoundation.org/node/8

DONATE: Please consider donating your money if you can’t donate your time to:http://ltmfoundation.org/donate. Your grandchildren will thank you.