Pink Measuring Cups and Spoons

While shopping at Home Depot last month I picked up some crazy things for my kitchen: pink measuring cups and spoons. I thought they'd add to my expanding collection of unusual kitchen items. Last Spring I picked up a set of red everyday dishes at our church rummage sale. Red dishes - now that's sort of wild for a woman whose original dishes (almost thirty years ago) were neutral colored stoneware! I love my used red dishes and my paltry meals actually look more appetizing on them, too. So, the pink measuring cups and spoons seemed like a good addition to the kitchen. The fact that the manufacturer donated a portion of the purchase price to the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Research was an added bonus. Tonight I used them to mix up a new muffin recipe from the back of a raisin box.

While measuring the flour, oatmeal, raisins, salt, cinnamon, milk, oil, apples, etc., my mind and heart recalled the phone call this afternoon and anticipated the drive to Salt Lake tomorrow. Mixing the batter I started to wonder --- how do we measure a life? How do we figure out which ingredients we need to heal this damn disease? How do we decrease the amount of pain and misery? How do we measure all that she means to us? How do we feed her with hope? How do we combine the right stuff for his weariness, fear and uncertainty?

My little purchase of pink measuring cups and spoons might have dropped a few pennies into the breast cancer research fund, but it's late for so many. It's late for Carrie who left us in 1991. It's late for Aunt Maggie in Salt Lake battling stage four breast cancer in her bones for the past month. When I bought these little things I didn't know Maggie would be sick again. I thought they'd just be for fun in the kitchen. Now, they measure far more than flour and sugar. They measure love, hope, faith, and trust.

After the muffins were done I washed and dried the pink utensils. With each stroke of the towel I said a prayer for Maggie's comfort, health, healing, peace, hope, and faith. Her eye is clear and her faith is strong, but her road is difficult. Perhaps you'll join me in this prayer -- for Maggie and Fred of Salt Lake. God knows who they are and where they live. Thank you.