What is a Waffle Wednesday?

One might think that this implies that you eat waffles on a Wednesday. That might be true as well but in the last few weeks, I have learned it is a tradition that somebody started a few years ago to create a deeper and more meaningful connection with friends and family by sending a video to peel beyond a traditional exchange of question and answer around somebody’s state of being.

I came to know this term as a friend of mine and their family experienced a very traumatic event with tremendous ambiguity and uncertainty in the moments, days, and weeks to follow. This friend was out of the country and was rarely able to speak on the phone, so the primary extent of our communication was via text messages. This made it challenging to ascertain their emotional and mental state as it can be difficult to discern how somebody is truly doing or what they are implying when in a written form.

Enter my introduction to the Wednesday Waffle days into this experience, where my friend sent out a video titled as such. I had such immense relief being able to interpret the nuances as to how they were doing by listening to the intonation of their voice, seeing the expressions on their face, and it helped me to have a greater understanding of their emotional and mental space. It also enabled me to better calibrate how to support them and this provided immense relief.

We continue to exchange Waffle Wednesdays, and I look forward to utilizing this to provide deeper connection to other friends and loved ones. By taking a text message to ask how somebody is doing and expanding it into more meaningful conversation and connection can be an incredibly positive shift in reaching out to others.

I can appreciate that not everybody has the ability, or desire, to send a video text however it begs the question of how can we improve on how we connect with others? What are some other questions that we can ask that provide a greater understanding about another, what is going on in their lives, how they are actually doing, and how can we better show up for them.

I have to imagine that this will not only be beneficial to those we offer this to, but will be a advantageous for ourselves as well.

In a world where it is easy to leave things at a typical exchange of pleasantries, can we find people that we want and need to show up for in a more intentional way? I began this wondering about the origin and purpose of a Waffle Wednesday and my only question left is, who do you want a Waffle Wednesday with?