Good Eats and Thoughts of a Contemplative Feeler

          Over the past couple of years, whenever people try something I have baked or cooked (that tastes delicious haha), they normally ask me when I started to become interested in baking and cooking. I have always enjoyed good food and I have always loved watching Food Network, but I did not become interested in actually baking and cooking on my own until college when I discovered that both activities were therapeutic for my soul and it was fun way for me to express affection and care towards my friends and InterVarsity family. Therefore, whenever I had the chance, I always volunteered to cook or bake something. Some of my college food endeavors included guava cake, dessert nachos, sweet and sour pork, and spicy crispy tofu.      After I graduated from college, made some money, and settled into a home with some friends, I was able to develop my baking passion even more. Whenever I had the chance, I tried baking up something delicious... and sometimes they resulted in epic fails. I

       During my seminary years, one of the most important courses I took was grief counseling. Although only an elective, grief counseling was healing for myself and helped me understand how pastors and ministry leaders have an important call to provide care for people who have experienced loss in our congregations. For me, grief refers to the process of experiencing the physical, psychological, behavioral, and social reactions to the perception of loss (Rando, 1993). Attune to this calling for myself, I could see all over social media that people were grieving in some manner because of the pandemic.       Towards the end of 2020, I saw a particular social media post from the parent of a former student who was expressing her frustration over the postponement of student athletics in the Central Valley and the toll it has had on all of her teenage kids. This made me begin thinking about the loss both 2020 graduates and 2021 graduates have experienced because of the pandemic: loss of soc