food of life

I just returned from watching Julie & Julia with MD and MD (huh, I hadn’t noticed that now the MS got married and is now MD, she has the same initials as MD). It was a very good, cute movie. It was all about food, so of course I related to it. The very first scene showed Julia Child feeding a bite of trout to her husband as they ate at a restaurant. They were both so overwhelmed by the goodness of the morsel, all they could do was make noises. If I had a penny for all the times Chad and I did that during our trip to San Francisco alone…

I was not expecting much of this movie to make me think of Chad, which may be why I broke into tears more than once. During one scene, Julie and her husband get in a fight and he leaves her for about a day, but she wasn’t sure if he was coming back. The following night, as she turns the corner to her house, there he is walking up to her. She just stops on the sidewalk, tears in her eyes, and asks in heartfelt desperation, “Are you back? Please tell me you’re back.” He said yes.

I, obviously, received a different response.

Another scene made me realize one of the things I miss so much about Chad that I hadn’t been aware of. Julia Child had been working on her cookbook and trying to get it published for over eight years. After another rejection letter, she gives up. Her constantly supportive husband reminds her how much he believes in her and in her work, and demands that she keep going and promises her someone will publish her book. I am blessed that I have so many, many people who have always believed in me, but Chad was the king of that area. Especially in my writing. It is due to him I am even attempting this fantasy series. He never questioned that it would get published. Even before I started writing it. It wasn’t an option to him. I was going to get published. How do you let go of that?