Author: whtpeacock

He was tall, had curly hair, and that’s about all I remember. But when his wife joined our music club last year, she looked vaguely familiar, her last name matched his, and then I remembered her too. She was friends with my mother, and he was my Vice Principal in junior high school. It has been nearly forty years since I was a student there.

Today our music group shared music with each other, and we met in her home. Earlier this week I was trying to decide what to play on the piano. Last night I decided on one of my favorites; Intermezzo Opus 118, No. 2, by Brahms. As it turned out, from our small group of ten musicians, another pianist had chosen that exact piece to play. So we each played our own interpretation. Then our host told us that her husband downloaded this piece and listened to it every day until he died. She said it brought him comfort and peace.

It is like a love song of our God, who like a devoted mother, cradles us tenderly and loves us dearly. ~Joyce Rupp

I lift up my eyes to the hills – from where will my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore. –Psalm 121

My dad and I share a love of nuts…any and all. As a child, he used to carefully crack the shells, gifting me with a whole nut. Pecans and walnuts are some of the most challenging nuts to come out whole.

I also love bread, but until recently I had never thought to call a loaf of nuts and seeds “bread”. Bound together by oil and eggs, this loaf is gluten-free and loaded with protein. It has a few nicknames: “Nordic Stone Age Bread” and “Nuts and Seeds Bread”. It’s already made and ready to sample during fellowship time the morning of October 7th. Baking is an act of love. So is carefully shelling nuts for someone else.

My husband likes to quote movie lines. One that stuck in our daughter’s memory is a line from The Game. He was tired of waiting for her to get up for school and, about to be late to work, blurted out the Michael Douglas line, “You failed!” These two words still haunt her after 10+ years.

When I fail at something, I think about it a lot and wonder how I can have a more favorable outcome. After fermenting the teff seeds a few weeks ago, relying on capturing wild yeast spores from the air, the whole mixture failed. I tried again using finer teff flour and a bit of active dry yeast. It was a better batter, but the consistency was too thick so it didn’t cook through. Two soggy messes later I added water to thin out the batter, and my final attempt, though not perfect, became alive with popping holes. If I fear failure, I lose out on opportunities to learn. The beauty of faith is that there are no right answers and no way to fail.

“To roll or compress into a thin plate, to make by uniting superposed layers of one or more materials, or to unite (layers of material) by an adhesive or other.” Answer: Laminate (verb). I learned “laminated dough” as a baking term when attempting to make croissants for the first time. Butter unites the compressed layers of dough, creating hundreds of flaky layers. The process of making paratha for the first time this past weekend was somewhat similar.

Paratha is from the province Peshawar in the diverse country of Pakistan, which in 1947 became a country independent of India. This flatbread is heavily eaten during Ramadan for suhoor, the early pre-dawn meal before fasting. I used a whole wheat chapati flour and mixed it with salt, egg and water. Then came the more complicated part…rolling out and folding the dough. I tried three different methods. Once it was rolled out, a thin layer of ghee (clarified butter) was spread and more flour sprinkled on top. Then the dough was folded a bit like origami before going back into the refrigerator. When chilled it was rolled out again, spread with more ghee, and heated on a cast iron skillet. I wasn’t able to resist trying the hot, fresh bread, and the soft, flaky layers had a delightful texture and taste. Although seemingly complicated, this is a simple bread similar to naan and pita, with just a few more twists and turns. It is probably like the bread Jesus ate, and it has many different names according to the region. Paratha, naan, roti, chapati, pita…simple loaves uniting people across many cultures.

Today, September 17, is the feast day of St. Hildegard, when it is tradition to make Hildegard’s Cookies of Joy (circa 1157). I chose Hildegard as my patron saint name when I became a Benedictine oblate last year, and I’ve been looking forward to this day. https://breadforthejourney.blog/2018/03/20/connectedness

In celebration of her life I decided to bake Cookies of Joy. The recipe is attributed to St. Hildegard, who said, “If you eat three to five of these cookies on a daily basis, it creates a cheerful countenance, lightens a heavy heart and reduces the effects of aging.” The original recipe called for spelt flour, a popular grain in Medieval times, and gaining in popularity now due to knowledge of its health benefits. The cookies also contain “spices that bring joy” such as cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Our kitchen was certainly joyful smelling this evening!

Jany Fournier-Rosset, author of the cookbook, From Saint Hildegard’s Kitchen, says, “The most important ingredient, in any preparation of food, is love…To cook with love is to offer one’s own heart.”

The sun’s light looks a little different on this wall than it does on that wall, and a lot different on this other one, but it is still one light. ~Rumi

Today our Chancel Choir joined other ensembles of many faiths in concert, conveying our sense of the sacred. Carolyn Losos, Chair of Arts and Faith St. Louis, speaks of this “interfaith commemoration in music” as providing “an opportunity for reflection, unity, and peace and the transformational power of a shared music experience.” The concert began with The Interfaith Youth Chorus singing “Welcome the Stranger Here,” with lyrics derived from prose and poetry by area high school students. Paul Reuter, composer and lyricist, states that “Welcoming the stranger is a theme common to many religions, often with the admonition to remember that we too, or our ancestors, were once strangers in a foreign land. The stranger can also be someone in our own community from a different religion, race or economic background.” As we listened to sacred music of various faith groups, an accompanying video of these performers’ Houses of Worship allowed the audience to “visit” their sacred spaces. The Interfaith Youth Chorus returned near the end of the concert to sing a piece with themes from Psalm 133, “How good and pleasant it is when when we dwell together in unity.”

All religions. All this singing. One song. Peace be with you. ~Rumi

So…I just adopted a cocoa plant! It was a heart decision. I saw it and it spoke to me. Growing up in PA, I remember visiting the Hershey’s chocolate factory. We actually got to enter the production area and observe large tubs of melted chocolate being wheeled from one area to the next. I used to dream of bathing in a tub of chocolate, and I’m pretty sure those dreams were inspired by this tour. I’m also pretty sure I dreamt in smell as well as color. Now I get to nurture this baby chocolate seed…one of God’s most delicious creations! Is this what happens when kids move out of the house???

The minute I saw this exotic fruit, rambutan, I wanted to toss it in the air and throw it to someone across the produce aisle. But I may have gotten kicked out of the global market. They look just like the rubber balls our children played with. Could rambutans have been the creative spark behind the invention of these soft, spiky toys? Discovering them was an unexpected surprise that put a smile on my face today. When I encounter things that make me smile, that memory stays with me for a long time. I hold onto every ounce of its positive energy for times when I need a boost of fun and creativity. After reading a bit about the rambutan, I found out it is a relatively common fruit in its native region of Southeast Asia; as common as an apple is in areas with cooler climates. Knowing this encourages me to view the common fruit I eat with fresh eyes. But not just fruit…everything in my life, because not everyone in the world has access to what I am surrounded by day after day. And it doesn’t stop there. The beauty I see each day doesn’t show the hidden beauty inside. The white flesh of the rambutan has a grape-like texture and sweetness, and to my delight it popped right out of its bright, spiky rind. These are things I might miss as I go about my daily routine if I don’t pay attention to the outer and inner beauty of God’s creation. The things that make me smile.

You might be a “breadie” if…while texting a friend, you type in a few letters and your iPhone autocorrects to a German bread called Weltmeisterbrot. Yes, I have been immersed in making bread for World Communion on October 7, but doing this brings me life. Everything about it is life-giving, from the excitement of deciding which bread to make, to researching its history and importance to the region, to preparation of ingredients, mixing and kneading the dough, baking, smelling the transformed goodness, and then sharing this goodness with others. Over the years, I have made some loaves which I’m not as fond of, mostly because I haven’t acquired a taste for this unfamiliar bread that isn’t part of my history. Tasting different grains and flours like Teff and Kamut, acorn and chestnut, experiencing textures from airy to dense, my world opens up and is not as distant, and I feel more understanding toward people living in these regions. For many, bread is necessary to life; not only for food and nutrition, but for its tradition and symbolism. The Ethiopian Teff bread I have yet to retry (my first attempt failed miserably), is a lesson in conservation. This flatbread is used as a “plate” for stews and salads placed right on top, pieces of it are torn off to use as utensils, then when the stew is gone the rest of the bread is consumed. Bread is life.

The history of the natural world is contained in a slice of bread, but, more importantly, the supernatural principal of grace is abundantly evident.  How bread works is how life works.  Life works like bread; life is reflected in bread and life is resurrected in bread. This is not only a Christian principle; it is a universal principle reflected in every culture, tradition, and major religion.  When the individual ingredients die to the whole something new emerges. ~Peter Reinhart

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever eats of this bread will never be hungry.” -John 6:35

Today our staff gathered for lunch and sang to those celebrating their birthdays this month. I do like cake, but fresh bread is a fine dessert. I just made bread with an ancient grain called spelt. This grain from antiquity ages well, as it has survived for more than 9000 years. That’s quite a few birthdays!

Spelt is the best grain; it is warming, fattening, strengthening, has a high quality, and is milder than any other grain. Spelt produces firm flesh and good blood, provides a happy mind and a joyful spirit. No matter how you eat spelt, either as a bread or in other foods, it is good and easy to digest. ~ St. Hildegard of Bingen, from Physica