What are the three things love needs to grow? For
me (could be different for you), I think these three are faith,
consistency and a desire to do onto/for your partner better than you do
for yourself.
Now a lot of people claims to want love and some
lucky people even claim to (or actually might) have it but I wanted to
look at love not the typical way but rather love in action and found it
in all places, in the home of love songs and broken hearts, the heart of
Country Music town.
Ruby Falls is a 145-foot high
underground waterfall located within Lookout Mountain. In 1905 the
natural entrance to Lookout Mountain Cave was closed during the
construction of a railway tunnel. In the 1920s a cave enthusiast named
Leo Lambert thought that he could re-open the cave as a tourist
attraction, and formed a company to do so. He planned to make an opening
further up the mountain than the original opening and transport
tourists to the cave via an elevator. For this purpose, his company
purchased land on the side of Lookout Mountain above Lookout Mountain
Cave and in 1928 began to drill through the limestone. In doing so, they
discovered a small passageway about 18 inches high and four feet wide.
Exploring this opening, Lambert discovered the formerly hidden Ruby
Falls Cave and its waterfall.On his next trip to visit the cave, Lambert took his wife Ruby, and told her that he would name the falls after her.
That is the part I love. He took his wife and named
it after her. Here is a man who as all the literature around the place
suggests was a cave enthusiast, who could selfishly have named the cave
after himself and it would have not changed a thing chose to name it
after his wife and not even his wife’s full name “Ruby Lambert” Fall but
simply Ruby. Love Lesson number 1: You can be dedicated to someone more
than you are to yourself and want more/better for the other.
Ruby falls is beautiful, it is amazing, it is
nature showing us that yes it knows how to do beauty better than we
humans could ever dream of. I looked at Ruby and thought (ok Lambert
could have done better). He was cute she definitely in my opinion was
not. However, Lambert saw all the beauty at the place and thought about
his wife. Love Lesson number 2: It does not matter how others see you
(physically or socially) when the right person sees you the right way
then in the end isn’t that all that should matter?
Ruby Falls is an amazing testament to and for love
and I loved the fact that there were various people from all walks of
the earth gathered there to enjoy what Lambert (and his Ruby) had given
to the world to enjoy.
So we woke up the next morning and being the true
foodies we are decided to find a nice brunch spot to fuel up. The Garden
Brunch was our first pick as it was close by and had good reviews. We
got there around 11 and already the place was packed with a wait time of
about 30 minutes. Usually we bail at this and find a new spot to eat
at, this time, however, God was on our side and we decided to wait it
out.
As we were waiting we noticed that everyone who
walked out had a smile on their face. (That should have been our first
sign) but we just thought oh well Southern hospitality and kept it
moving on our cellphones.
Now let me set the scene for you. The Garden Brunch
Café is a small establishment, probably a two bedroom house that was
converted into a café. I believe it seated about 30 people max….15 or so
seated and the others standing, basically it is not a big
industrialized restaurant/café. It had the homey you are special feel.
It was beautifully decorated with inspirational art all over the walls
and FRESH FLOWERS on the tables. No I am not a “Flower” girl but fresh
flowers in a home definitely give the home a little something I think.
Ok so enough about the décor. Let’s move on to the
food and shut it down. The food was AMAZING!!! This has to be hands down
the best brunch I have ever had in America. What was so awesome about
it was that it was just my experience that was good but everyone on my
table. Now the reason why everyone was walking out with a smile was
making sense. The pancakes were to die for, the drinks were good not too
strong, not too sweet not too …it was Perfect!!
Ok so I am sure you are thinking good for me I had
awesome food and what has that got to do with Love. Well the Brunch Café
is a family owned business Karl and Jennifer Carpenter opened the
restaurant in 2009. We were served by their son who informed us that his
sister, brother-in-law and cousins all work there as well. (We were
seated by his father and his mother is the head chef).
Love lesson 3: With support you can accomplish your
vision. This family had found something and they were all working to
make it work (you know what I mean). Too often families start projects
and no one believes in it enough to dedicate the necessary resources
(time, money, etc,) to let the project work. Then when it fails they
want to turn around and call you a failure for having the guts to start
something new. Just looking at the number of people who came in before
us, were there during our stay and were waiting outside to get in, our
server will make a lot of money in tips, money which he could use for
his college fund if he so chooses.
Again like Ruby and Lambert, I love the fact that
this is a husband and wife working together to make it work. I am sure
they could have hired a manager and continued working at their
respective jobs and not taken a risk with this establishment. Love
lesson 4: Time together is time well spent.
I do not know the family, they could hate
themselves, they could hate their restaurant etc. etc. but that was
definitely not the vibe one felt in the café. The food was half the
battle but the ambiance won the war for us. There was mutual respect,
there was attention, there was caring (and this was just for the
guests)…You must visit the Garden Brunch Café.
Final Love lesson: Just as I took this trip to
experience love from another perspective, we have to appreciate the fact
that Love is always in action. As dynamic evolving human beings love
cannot remain static for us. We continually have to evolve to support
the things we love about love and revise the things we do not love so
much. Next time you want to experience love, instead of looking for it,
try to do love and heck if it fails try looking for it in Tennessee,
after all it’s the only Ten I see in these parts …
No comments:
Post a Comment