Encouragement. It flows freely around me, pools up in my soul, and colors my world with vibrant hues.

This morning it hit me again how much writingish encouragement means to me. All week long I’ve donned an apron each morning and spent hours in the kitchen, preparing food at my non-writng job. As I work, I get to have dozens of short, fun conversations with the people who I’m cooking for. Some of the people I’ve never met before, but some of them I’ve had a working relationship with for several years.

I’ve been amazed over and over again at how many of them have asked me about my writing. (In fact, I just took a break from this blog post to check on how things are going in the kitchen and yet another person asked me about writing.) It means an incredible amount to me that these friends who I only get to see a couple times a year remember our conversations from years past and right away bring up the subject of writing.

The people who I’m around this week know me mainly as the girl who runs the kitchen and helps keep stuff clean. In fact, I often joke when I meet a new person at work that they won’t ever see me without an apron on, and for the most part that’s true. It’s not uncommon for people to thank me for my work in the kitchen, and even to compliment me on the food, and I really do appreciate that a lot.

Yet, so many of these lovely people have delved deeper, and instead of just asking me about what’s on the menu, they’ve taken the time to ask about me as a person. (Just in case you haven’t caught on to it, anyone who asks more than about two questions about my life automatically hear about my writing.) And, in a way that means even more than hearing about how delicious the food is, because it means they actually care about me, not just the food I help prepare.

I want to be that type of person. I want to encourage others, remember their interests, and engage them in an uplifting conversation, even if it only lasts two minutes. Because do you know what? We all have the ability to inspire and encourage each other. And when we remember what it is that means a lot to someone, then we have the chance to throw sparkling, beautiful encouragement into their lives. And that’s lovely.