As part of this pantry challenge, I’ve been thinking about abundance. Well, when I haven’t been scourging myself with whips of self-hatred for the hoarding habit I seem to have slipped into, I’ve been allowing a few other more productive thoughts to slip through.

One of the things my church has in abundance is women or girls named Kate. I’m friends with one of them. Well, it’s a small church, so I’m friends with all of them. We have a larger abundance of women or girls who have been named in some form after the Virgin Queen. Kate’s daughter is one of those. I love Kate’s daughter. She is quite small. One of my very favorite things about her is that she is most particular about who she will spend her valuable time with. I know that this is quite an embarassment to Kate. But I think it’s a valuable character trait and should be nurtured. Now, of course, at her young age perhaps she is not as polished as her dear mother might wish at expressing her desires. But I would love to be as clear in my mind about who is worthy of my time and who is not. She knows, very clearly, when she wants to play and that she does not want to waste her time with dorky adults. And she gives them what has become known in our church as, “the stink eye.” I love that term. I love that little girl. I love her ability to prioritize herself and have clear boundaries.

Today I’m giving myself the stink eye. I find that I need it. Sherri, my pantry pal, is asking how we might reload our pantries once we have emptied them? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself. How will we change our shopping habits? Our eating habits? Our dining habits? Then … the stink eye question comes … or will we? Will we actually allow this experience to penetrate our hard heads, concrete hearts and deeply rutted lives and cause change to occur?

The stink eye is far more winsome on a little girl than it is in my mind’s eye.