“We are always hungry for more.”
As I sat down tonight to write this message, I reminded myself that it was my mother’s birthday today, and I thought it was the right thing to write about her this week.
When I was growing up, I did not realize that my mom was not only working a full-time job and being a full-time mom and wife, but she was also always using her spare time to cook, bake and entertain people in our house. She would even send food to them, even if she drove it to them herself. I was too young to understand that this was a big deal, so I guess I didn’t realize it until I got a little older.
As I got into my teen years and I became more mature and aware, I started to notice that my mom was continually figuring out a way to feed people and make them happy and consistently trying to figure out a way to not only send them home with extra food but always trying to make a date for the next time that they would come over. She was still hungry for more, even to the point where my father, my brother, my sister and I were annoyed by it sometimes.
It didn’t make any sense because we didn’t have a ton of extra money or anything. My mom did not have a lot of free time because of all her responsibilities every day. Still, for whatever reason, she not only figured out a way to continuously cook and feed people, but she also was still trying to figure out a way or make a list of who was next. Her deeds were often not reciprocated (and my dad would remind her of that), but it never seemed to bother her; she just kept going.
It was like she was never satisfied. After a while, I realized that feeding people, entertaining people and making them feel good physically by feeding them was something that she enjoyed.
Sometimes people had things to do, and they couldn’t come over. Other times she would call people and try to send stuff over to them, but they had already eaten, or they were not going to be home, and this made my mom sad. It was like she had a quota in her mind or a certain amount of food she had to give to others every day to make her happy.
She had to figure out a way to impact people through food and cooking. Whenever she had some spare time, it was like oxygen for her. I vividly remember on a Friday, Saturday or a Sunday; if she had no one on her schedule that day to entertain or cook, she would start making calls and inviting people over until finally, someone would say yes.
When I was growing up in that environment, I sort of thought, it was normal. I reflect, and I realize that my mom was just very passionate about feeding people and getting people to come together and break bread, have a good discussion and help them forget about the stress of life by taking some time out and eating with good company. Of course, the food was good too!
Today I gave an example for the core value “we are always hungry for more” from my mom Josephine Licari. She’s turning 78 today and still is one of the hardest working people I know. It seems like she’s never running out of energy to serve others, and it seems like still to this day, she’s constantly on the phone trying to get people to come over or get people to accept the food that she has made as a gift.
Every dinner she cooked, and every person that she entertained was never enough for her. She was never satisfied, and to this day, she is not satisfied. She continues to look for opportunities every day to satisfy her craving for serving others. Sometimes we even receive some food at TLCHQ from her, YUM!
Of course, this is because she has a few different things she is passionate about that we are talking about here. She loves to cook, loves to have people over to eat, and loves helping make people forget about their anxieties, at least if it’s only for an hour.
I learned everything I know about staying hungry from my mom, and quite frankly, it’s a pretty simple recipe. All you have to do is find something you love to do and keep doing it even if you don’t get paid for it. If you genuinely love it, you will be looking forward to the next opportunity to do it, and you will always be happy.
This week, I’m talking about cooking and entertaining, but I think the same principles are valid for whatever you do in life.
For example, if you love to paint, but you can’t find anybody to buy your paintings, keep on painting and give them away to others. I am sure that eventually, you will become good at painting and people will start asking you to paint them something instead of asking them to accept it.
If you love telling jokes but find that not many people laugh at your jokes, you need to tell jokes because eventually you will become better at it and then people will start asking you to tell them jokes instead of forcing them to listen.
How do I know that both of those things are good examples? My mom taught me that all you have to do is continue to do something that you’re passionate about, and eventually, people will start calling you and asking you for the honor of being part of your passion instead of calling them. She never told me this; I was just able to see it every day and figure it out myself.
This week I remind you all that if you’re going through the motions and you’re not doing something you’re passionate about for work, it’s okay. Still, you must do the thing you are passionate about more often because that is your gift, and you’re supposed to share it with the world.
If you do that, you will always be hungry for more, and the people around you will also be hungry for more of what you are serving!
Please have a great week and reflect on what you are passionate about and figure out how you can do it more often because life is short, my friends!
Thank you for reading, and have a fantastic week!
