Five Things I Know for Sure about Nourishment

1. I like eggs - eggs a perfect food, wrapped in their own containers, have nourished most of us since childhood. Eggs cooked in any form, especially scrambled, comfort food for any time of day or night. Scrambled eggs are soft and warm and delicious. When they are spiced up and blended with rice or eaten along side fresh tomatoes, they are even more delicious. Egg sandwiches, devilled eggs, eggs Benedict, eggs over easy or basted………the choices are endless. 

2. As far as meat goes, I know I don’t need that much or that often, but do love a good steak, grilled or barbecued, still pink in the middle. Roast beef stuffed with garlic and roasted slowly. Beef chunks stewed companionably with carrots, onions and potatoes, glossy gravy keeping them all together. Chicken and fluffy dumplings, meatballs coated in tomato atop spaghetti. Each dish giving the nourishment that only red meat can give.

3. In light of #2 and with apologies to vegetarians, I know for sure that I am a carnivore.

4. Preparing food is part of the nourishment I need for a successful life. Planting and harvesting so I can watch food grow in front of my eyes and then bring it all to my table. Peeling, cutting, arranging any ingredients gives me a feeling of satisfaction when I sit down to eat. Yes, I could go to the store for all the same foods, and sometimes do, but close connection with the earth would be missing. I do only have a few small container gardens, but it still keeps me connected to this earth.

5. The aroma of baking bread, the taste of fresh bread is a link with the past and present, with a promise of future goodness. Even greater is kneading bread dough with my own two hands, shaping it into loaves, and putting two almost perfect loaves on a rack to cool. The whole process is nourishment for my soul. (The nourishment to my body can be a bit overdone with the bread is eaten in quantity.)

“I act with complete certainty. But this certainty is my own.”

~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, On Certainty

Missing the Story

When I move too fast

I miss the story

that travels all around me

on the wind and in the clouds

When I move too fast

I miss the story

that nests in the trees

flies high in the sky

When I move too fast

I miss the story

of a shirt draped on a walker

holding a back pack stuffed full.

When I move too fast

I miss the story

of a man in a wheelchair

working on his cell phone.

When I move too fast

I miss the stories

that swirl all around me

in the streets, on the wind and in the clouds.

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, 

stories are the thing we need most in the world.”

~ Philip Pullman

Beautiful Spillage

Early morning

when energy rises

like the sun slowly

spilling golden pink rays

nourishing the sleeping land with lightening sky,

back-lighting snow capped mountains

spreading magic over quilted prairies

be-jeweling lake countries

awakening treelined streets ~

homes just stirring inside all that silence 

stirring into daylight with restless calm.

“At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear.”

~ Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through it and Other Stories

Hidden from View

      Hidden from View

Emerging slowly 

from the park a tall figure cloaked heavily in black

dark eyes peering cautiously

tall, hunched and quiet

back pack neatly shouldered

male or female?

young or old?

well nourished or gaunt?

only a thick cloak 

of vulnerability and sadness.

“People can be at their most vulnerable, but still tenacious at the same time.”

~ Toni Bernhard

Dry as Dust

Blocked

barred

creativity 

stagnate and dull

my soul dry as dust

creativity scattered by winds

of life’s unpredictable 

roller coaster til my mind casts about for words to craft in phrases poetic or profound.

Seeking the nourishing words 

of other authors a movement

towards at least putting

a grudging shoulder to the blocks to moisten my writer’s soul.

“Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen

 or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing to say?”

~ Kurt Vonnegut

Birthday Cakes, Cabbage Rolls and Sushi

Temptation comes from deep in the gut

Or from the delicious aroma of chocolate chip cookies

steak on the grill on a cool summer’s evening

chicken soup broth bubbling and simmering

each one nourishing - well maybe not the cookies

but nourishment is more than just of the body ~

each bite, each taste brings up a memory of breakfasts and dinners and snacks and lunches,

celebrations with family and friends,

ordinary meals at home or away ~

and each bite, each taste we make in our kitchens,

eat in favourite restaurants or at foodcarts on the street

breeds the temptation to enjoy our food without guilt.

“I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.”

~ Mae West

One Stop Shopping

Necessary items stacked

higgledy piggledy in shopping carts.

Food for pangs of hunger 

not necessarily for nourishment

but delicious pastries all the same

water bottled and packaged

a bouquet of flowers perched 

on top of rolls of paper towels

beside fresh French baguettes

fresh fruits and vegetables spaced

midst the overflowing abundance.

“The art of our necessities is strange

 that can make vile things precious.”

~ William Shakespeare, King Lear

Invisible Texturing

Exquisite and delicate ~

gossamer threads 

shine in the sun

spun by a master spinner

woven through trees and gardens,  snaring unsuspecting flies for later nourishment - delicate architecture that clings to arms and faces as we stroll paths and parks in dappled summer shade.

“The difference between utility and utility plus beauty 

is the difference between telephone wires and the spider web.”

~ Edwin Way Teale