Happy Harvest

      Life is always bursting at the seams with activity at the beginning of a new school year.  One of the biggest challenges this time of year always brings to the table is balancing the effort of putting away enough food for the winter while ensuring there is plenty of time set aside for everyone's schoolwork.  Slipping in one area can quickly tip the scales enough to throw off family balance.  For me this has meant putting a temporary hold on the flow of writing I had been pursuing over the summer.  However, this breezy Saturday morning I found myself gifted with some spare moments all to myself and I jumped at the chance to steal a few moments for working on this little piece that has been taking shape in the back of my mind.  It's a simple exploration of my love affair with good food and its spiritual impact on moods and feelings.  

     The variety of food provided for us by God does more than simply sustain our lives with physical nourishment.  Food alters and elevates our moods and comforts the body and soul when we are in need.  It is no small wonder that Jesus referred to himself as food or living bread.  Food, being a universal need, is something we are able to wrap our minds around.  We can see, smell, taste, and feel it linking aspects of our physical self to our spiritual dimensions with romantic harmony.  Yet food goes a step beyond simply connecting us to ourselves.  It also links us to each other and Our Creator as well.  
    
     I see each food designed by God as a loving miracle.  It is no small wonder when I can taste a warm sun-ripened raspberry plucked from a prickly branch or slice into a hydrating cool cucumber on a muggy day.  They become living proof to my whole being that God created the world for us!  He knew at the beginning we would need to wrap our shaking hands around mugs of steaming tea with tear-streaked faces or slice into sweet smelling loaves of warm bread on a frigid morning.  It seems to me that each food and all that we are able to create with it is an extension of the many facets of God. Each one is a preconceived gift from above that should be celebrated, enjoyed, and shared with family and friends.    

Happy Harvesting!



Sweet Current

Trembling fingers

grasp,

Spiced mocha mug

sipped with

caution so

fever won't burn.

Butterfly stomach 

gnaws,

Sweet corn aroma

fasting for 

love that

dines on fumes.

Running thoughts

stray,

Currant jam drips

toasted on 

hope to

fuel empty tanks.

Salty palate 

thirsts,

Iced fruit cleanses

melting the

urge to

return to the fray.

Roused appetites

jump,

Early fried confection

sweetened by

warmth that

sustains over time.