You have probably heard the story of the traveler that taught the village how to make stone soup. One day she wandered into a village after a long hard day’s hike and needed something to eat, but couldn’t find anyone willing to share what they had. “Sorry,” she kept hearing, “there’s only enough for me and my family.” After several unsuccessful attempts, she had a bold idea. She set up her cooking equipment in the center of the square, put on the water to boil, and began to look about on the ground and poke along the hedges. Curious, some of the children approached her to ask what she was doing. “I’m looking for the perfect stone for stone soup,” she replied. “Can we help?” they asked. “Certainly,” she said. So together they kept looking. By and by one of the children found what they were looking for – a round stone, slightly larger than a chicken’s egg. “Perfect!” she cried.
By now they had gathered a few more curious onlookers, so as she carefully set the stone into the boiling water and began to stir, she mentioned, “Now stone soup is good by itself, but it’s even better with some onion.”
“I have an onion!” exclaimed one of the onlookers, “I’ll get it!”
“Fantastic!” she said. “And what would make it even better is some carrots.”
“I have a couple carrots we could put in!” said another.
And so, little by little, out of their curiosity, the villagers brought what they had to share for the stone soup. By the time it was ready, it was very tasty indeed! And everyone got a bowl.
Washington School Neighbors recently had a small stone soup moment at our Salsa Garden party in September. We were making the salsa fresh and had forgotten garlic, so one of the neighbors said, “I’ll bring some.” Another neighbor across the street saw our bowls of chips and asked if we liked guacamole. We did. She disappeared, and a few minutes later came back with a bowl of freshly made guac. Their contributions made the evening that much better, we all enjoyed the salsa and guacamole, and as we were preparing to pack up to leave I heard these two neighbors, who lived across from each other, finish up their conversation by saying, “Well, it was nice to meet you!” The good will and the gifts are there–sometimes they just need a platform to be discovered and shared.