Sharing Cake at Cocoa Cinnamon

I went to Cocoa Cinnamon in Durham, North Carolina to do some work. Three friends were sitting together at the table behind me. They seemed like cool people. I’d been carrying a Haitian saying around in my head, shared by Lynne Twist in The Soul of Money. Eat a piece of cake alone and you’ll feel empty. Share it with someone and you’ll feel full and fulfilled. I’d been wanting to test it. So, I introduced myself.

Sam, Tariq, and Hannah said yes to sharing a cinnamon roll and a conversation. What followed was the first story in what I’m calling the Sharing Cake Series.

Sam and Tariq are married. And Sam shared that Tariq had recently gone through an emergency kidney transplant. He is 29. I told them about my mom. Stage four kidney failure. On the transplant list. Tariq chimed in and shared how he got his kidney. His childhood friend Ryan saw a post Sam had made online. Ryan got tested. 1 in 100,000 chance. He was a match! Tariq now has one of Ryan’s kidneys.

Hannah’s story followed. She’d grown up in what she called Walmart land in Arkansas. She swore she’d never work for the company. After years in high-end fashion in NYC, she now leads product design and development for women's apparel at Sam's Club. She was hesitant to join Walmart. It was a big change, and certainly not as glamorous as working in high-end fashion in NYC.

A trip to Louisiana changed her perspective. She told me about a single mother with five little girls and $25 a month for clothes. Hannah took that conversation and reframed how she thinks about her work.

I went to Cocoa Cinnamon to do some work. I left with three new friends. We shared a cinnamon roll, but the stories were the real treat.

Read the full piece on Substack.

Learn more about the adventure at www.heart-strong.org