A little bit of my Nan on every bottle.

This is my Nan, Fran. This was the last dinner I shared with her before she suddenly passed away from a heart attack a year ago. Before this dinner I hadn't seen her in 6 months because I claimed to be "too busy" and got caught in the rat race of life. That last dinner I shared with her changed my life and Mingle's mission forever.

I took my Nan for granted and stopped being curious about her and her life. Our relationship had turned bland. That last dinner we shared though I decided to shake things up, put my phone down, gather round the dinner table and get curious again! We often think we know everything about the people closest to us but everyday is an opportunity to rediscover and learn something new. That night I pretended my Nan was a stranger, she was the hero of the table and my sister and I got to know her again with questions we never had asked before. Boy that lady blew me away with the stories and experiences she had that I never knew about!

They say the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your questions and relationships and that night my life got that much more flavoursome. It shifted the relationship I had with the dinner table and allowed me to rediscover the power of being curious and asking questions. This dinner with my Nan woke me up to how easy it is to lose sight of how valuable the simple things in life are.

We often forget how these daily rituals of cooking or gathering around a dinner table can be opportunities for connection. Cooking doesn't have to be just cooking, sitting around a dinner table doesn't have to be just eating, they should be opportunities to connect with the people you love.

That's why we have Nan's dinner table questions on the back of your Mingle bottles. Next time you gather round a dinner table grab a bottle and ask someone you care about a #minglewithpurpose question! You might just rediscover something!