Just Food for Thought is a story about Patty's life during ages 18 to 25. She leaves Texas to go off to college in the Pacific Northwest, leaving behind her family and friends. Her idyllic ways of thinking are soon challenged. She experiences life on her own. She becomes ingrained into college life, where she makes many friends. However, she never forgets her strong family roots while finding her way in the world. She crosses paths with a handsome upper classman, then enters into a darker realm. But she also crosses paths with good people who help her through rough times. She marries, has a baby, eats health foods, sews clothes, writes poetry. She sees a ghost, has dreams of the future, and dreams with messages. She weathers storms. She learns that friends die, babies cry, and mother's love lasts. She learns about the special bond of love with her dogs, even years after her first Labrador dies and her second one appears. She sees how unconscious connections with people spiral from past to future. She learns that her own life moves in spirals - goes full circle - then meets on a different plane. Patty's memoir, begun twenty five years after the events, was based on vague recollections. Eight years later, the memoirs became intertwined with her letters. The letters were presented to her by her mother in 2013 - lovingly tied into bundles with baby blue satin ribbons. Vague recollections of her life, as it turns out, do not always match letters written at the time. Both accounts remain within the story, which has led to some duplication, as well as some contradiction. That's just food for thought, dear reader.
