The old French story Stone Soup was one of my favorite books as a child. It’s the story of three soldiers returning from a long military journey. At the end of a long day, hungry and tired, they come upon a small village. This village is suffering from a famine and the villagers can barely meet their own needs, much less the needs of three soldiers. In the end, the soldiers encourage the villagers to come together, each person contributing one ingredient, to create soup from stones. The result is a feast fit for a king that fed all the villagers.
As a child, I enjoyed this story, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized the significance of what takes place. In the story, a community encounters a need that no one person or family could meet. But when each family contributed what they could, the need was not only met, but the entire village enjoyed a feast.
It’s becoming more and more evident that our community has needs that cannot be met by one person. We learn from Stone Soup that if we all contribute what we have, the entire community enjoys the benefits. Every day at 6 Stones, people like you do just that – they give of their time, talents, and resources. And it’s this collaboration that allows us to cook up our own Stone Soup. We couldn’t do it without each one of you!
‘Many thanks for what you have taught us,’ the peasants said to the soldiers. ‘We shall never go hungry, now that we know how to make soup from stones…”
‘Oh, it’s all in knowing how,’ said the solders.