Comfort that Satisfies

This week I had the pleasure of reading one of my original poems at an open mic:

The Hearth Is Where Our Love Flows Free

This home’s heart beats from this room
Where fire and water meet.
Home-baked goodness births the fumes
That feed the souls they greet.

Everyone at table eats
And everyone belongs
Conversation makes time fleet
Sun rises before long

If I’m not careful I will gain
A pound or two today
Occasional restraint in vain
Acceptance anyway

Sauces, spices, reverie
The hearth is where our love flows free

I read this one In part because I’ve been watching one of my 12-year-old twin daughters discover a love of baking.

Like many passions, it seemed to emerge naturally. One day she was helping in the kitchen. The next, she was searching for recipes, experimenting with ingredients, and delighting in the process of creating something from scratch. The wonderful thing about baking is the creative process that unfolds and yields delicious results.

As dough rises and cookies bake, something happens to the atmosphere of a home. Aromas drift through the rooms. People wander into the kitchen to investigate. Conversations begin. Anticipation builds. Before long, everyone is gathered together around a shared experience.

When I wrote The Hearth Is Where Our Love Flows Free, I was thinking about the kitchen not just as a place where meals are prepared but as the emotional center of a home—the place where nourishment, hospitality, and connection intersect.

This home’s heart beats from this room
Where fire and water meet.

For most of human history, the hearth was literally the center of family life. It provided warmth, light, and sustenance. People gathered there because they needed to, but they stayed because it became the natural place for stories, laughter, and companionship.

Still today, guests often end up standing in the kitchen. Family conversations happen around counters and tables. Important moments are shared over meals. We may gather because of the food, but what keeps us there is the connection.

That’s why comfort food is so powerful.

A favorite pie, homemade bread, a cherished family recipe—these foods often carry memories with them. They remind us of people we love, places we felt safe, and moments when life seemed simpler. We call them comfort foods because they soothe us.

But I sometimes wonder whether what we’re seeking isn’t really comfort from food itself.

What we’re seeking is belonging.

We long for a place where we are seen, known, and embraced without our having to perform to earn it.

Food becomes intertwined with those desires because it releases that satisfying dopamine. The meal becomes inseparable from the love. The aroma triggers the memory of joy.

But life outside of the kitchen shows us that belonging can be elusive.

Some people are single and long to build a home with someone.

Some thought they had found that person only to discover reality didn’t match the dream.

Some once had a home filled with warmth and companionship and then lost it through death, divorce, distance, or circumstance.

Others grew up in homes that never provided the acceptance they longed for in the first place.

When those losses and disappointments come, it’s easy to seek refuge in food, nostalgia, or fantasies about how life was supposed to unfold.

What If there’s another source of comfort that brings us satisfaction?

Can we create comfort for ourselves by choosing how we show up?

What if we see “home” not as a place, but as an atmosphere of belonging that we mindfully create.

Belonging is created every time we make room for ourselves and for others exactly as we are. If we’re sitting at the table alone, we embrace ourselves and know that we belong. If we’re sitting at the table with others, we embrace them and ourselves and know that we belong.

I think that’s why I find so much meaning in watching my daughter bake. She’s not just making cookies or cakes. She is learning the quiet art of hospitality. She is discovering that simple acts of care can transform a house into a home. And most of all, she is discovering her intuition, listening to herself, honoring the leading of her heart, and deciding where she belongs.

Let’s follow her example and our love will flow free.