We shared stories over Haitian pumpkin soup and became friends. We need to do this more

Here we are, celebrating the first Sunday of 2024. Perhaps the word “celebrating” is not quite appropriate, seeing how the new year came in just about how it went out — with violence and upheaval in our neighborhoods and around the world.

Yet, being the optimist that I am, I am still looking for the good in the world to outweigh the bad. And that, my friends, is something that we all can hope for. But I know that hoping and praying alone won’t change anything. We have got to add some good works to our hopes and prayers.

Sometimes when I am thinking about the condition of our communities, our state and our country, and wondering if there will ever be a change for the better, I wonder how many others are thinking the same way. Then, I get letters from many of you who let me know that you feel the same way. You let me know that, you too, want the peace and goodwill that showered our families and spread out into our neighborhoods over the holidays to be carried over into the new year. We want the good feelings to hang around.

Oh, if only it were that easy.But deep down within, we know that we can’t be lazy on this journey called life. If we want peace, we must work at it. We must put in the effort to reach out to those who are different from us. You have heard this from me before, how we must educate ourselves about different cultures and religions to get to know our neighbors.

Making this seemingly insignificant step to get to know our neighbors works, ya’ll. On New Year’s Day, I along with others from different backgrounds, was invited to the home of my friend Nadege Green, a young Haitian-American woman, for soup Joumou. This is a gathering where people (friends as well as strangers) are invited to get acquainted and/or re-.acquainted over a bowl of steaming pumpkin soup, thick with the flavors of other root vegetables and meat.

Nadege told us that her mother Christiana had made the soup the way she used to make it back in Haiti.

We met under the trees of Nadege’s backyard, seated around tables spread with colorful cloths. It was a beautiful day, almost as if God had ordered the weather just for us. As we dipped into our bowls of soup, we told our stories.

As we sat under the shady trees, their trunks wrapped in colorful crinoline, I shared stories of my own New Year’s Day tradition of eating black-eyed peas, rice, greens, and cornbread (and sometimes, fried fish). I told stories of my growing years attending the Watchnight services at our church. There was a lot of laughter. Some of us had come to soup Joumou as strangers. We left as friends.

I am convinced that this kind of connection with our neighbors can happen throughout our communities, where we share our stories and the events of our lives, learning that we are not that different, after all. And that there is no reason to fear or hate that which we don’t know or understand.

As the group dipped into the rich pumpkin soup, I don’t think anyone was thinking about how different we were from each other. We only knew how tasty the soup was and how much alike we were. And we celebrated that and the outpouring of love that surrounded our gathering.

I was the oldest guest at the table. So, I prayed over our meal. I felt at ease, being the oldest guest. It was like having my children gathered around me as I told my stories. It was wonderful because they were listening and learning from me, as I was listening and learning from them.

All too soon, the sun began making its way beyond the western horizon. One by one, the guests started to leave. I had come to the event with one of my surrogate daughters, Femi Falomi Browne. As I got into her car for the trip back home, I felt totally satisfied.

In a world where there is strife and turmoil and war, we all had just witnessed the peace of a perfect day. We got a glimpse of what it would be like if people everywhere would lay aside their differences and just be respectful and kind to each other. Just for a little while.

Such peace and understanding can start over a bowl of soup Joumou, chicken soup with Matzah balls, black-eyed peas and cornbread, or any other food you can bring to the table. It’s all good. The most important thing is to show up at the table. Sharing a meal seems to be a great place to start.

Book reading at Beach JCC

Speaking of learning about other cultures, the Miami Beach Jewish Community Center, 4221 Pine Tree Dr., will offer a series of classes and events to help you on your journey.

At 12:30 p.m. Jan. 10, Anne Burt will discuss her new book, “The Dig.” The book, inspired by the Greek tragedy Antigone, portrays a woman at odds with her history, forced to choose between her ambitions and her loyalty to her brother.

For more information on events at the center and to register, call 305-534-3206 or send an email to, info@mbjcc.org.