In The Ordinary, Where Feasts are Hidden and Revealed

The day began with a run along the country road where the sounds of the water running down the ditches played a tune.  It became loud and vibrant where the water was full and rapid flowing, then changed tempo to a slower rhythm where the water was less, it moved a bit slower and took on a quieter tone.   My gaze was down the road but I heard the water flowing beside me play its own tune.   It was a feast of sounds, ordinary sounds that come from Creation.  They played their melody as I ran along this ordinary country road in the place I call home and it sang life to me.  It was a feast for my senses as I ran, as I listened, as I inhaled the sounds and smells of today.

Coffee midday connecting with a friend I hadn’t had a face to face chat with for some time, in a café that we both love some downtime was the next feast.   A big bowl of delicious steaming espresso coffee and a cup of chicken coconut curry soup with a large slice of fresh made warm ciabatta bread!   Soup and bread which are comfort food in the winter months brought me satisfaction.   The conversation with my friend brought me life – wide awake, be alert kind of life!

Banana squash that had grown in our garden this summer didn’t produce an abundant crop but there was one left from the harvest last fall.   I cooked it up and made a squash curry soup with apples.  It will be a quick and ready supper that I can take from the freezer in the future.  A feast, a simple feast with the abundance of our small garden that gives us beautiful produce, will give us a bowl of hot comforting soup this winter.

I brought the platter of food to the table tonight, and carrying it I felt deliciously alive!   It was spread upon a beautiful pottery platter that David has had for many years. Sautéed potatoes, which are a favourite of my beloved’s, lay beside free range chicken thighs that were seared in a little sesame oil and then cooked a little longer  bathed in kejup manis (an Indonesian soy sauce that also contains some star anise and is sweeter and thicker than normal soy sauce).  Some fresh green beans, blanched and then sautéed in a little butter were the ‘fresh’ ingredient for our meal.   We don’t always have wine during the week but a glass of Nk’Mip Tallon red wine added an aditional touch to this ‘ordinary’ meal, a feast of ordinary things that nourished us.

Today, looking back looks like a tender sweet banquet.  There were the sounds of nature and life that came with the morning run.   A simple lunch with a dear friend was another feast – the taste of communion, bread, soup and sweet conversation in a Light filled sacred space.  It was an ordinary evening meal that held the sacred ingredients of love, of Holiness, of wonder and communion, and the presence of the Beloved.   Home is this place where I am fully free to be myself, awake and alive to the reality that Love has given me precious gifts that I could not have imagined.

Yes, today was about feasting, finding the abundance, within the ordinary of every day life.   Tonight the question I sit with is what if finding and creating spaces for feasting with others is my life work?