TRUE Breakfast of Champions: Lucky Pancakes

When my sister and I were teenagers, we played against each other for a state championship. We both ate our mom’s lucky pancakes that morning.

Lucky pancakes were the accidental dollop of dough that dripped off the plastic pouring bowl she used. My mom never discarded the little mistakes. Instead, she would use the spatula to get them off the griddle and put one on each plate of those eating on Saturday mornings. It became a pre-game ritual.

In her game-day apparel, she’d carefully place them on our plates and say, “These are lucky pancakes. They will make you strong and capable.”

I honestly don’t remember if that’s exactly how she said it, but I know eating those pancakes sure made me feel strong and capable.

Undoubtedly, our miniature pancakes had negative calories and the syrup we drowned them in was even less healthful for our athletic endeavors, but they nourished us in ways more impactful than the most nutritious meal we could have eaten. At the breakfast table before games, we consumed something about intention. We knew what we cleaned off that plate was going with us onto the field, or court. We carried magic with us when we walked out our door.

I don’t remember the details of any of our pre-game conversations, but I simply knew that my performance, or the outcome, was going to be inconsequential to our mom. She would be there again the next Saturday, with lucky pancakes at the ready.

Our pre-game routine was never about pressure. It smelled like support, looked like joy, and tasted like love. They were the meals that stuck to our bones.

The younger version of me, the competitive one who needed to prove a lot to the world, would want you to know that our team won that championship game. The older, wiser, less competitive and recently reflective version of myself, the one who loved feeding our now grown athletes those same lucky pancakes, knows better. Our mom was growing champions in each of us… no matter who won the game.

Parents need to think more about what feeling we imprint on our child’s hearts. We have a lot of “head” instruction about the things we think they should or should not do. Maybe we need to think a little more about the feelings we feed them.