a delicious experience

Hemingway poetically described each meal he ate and drank in A Moveable Feast- leaving the following words touchingly etched on my heart & lips;

“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint
metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.”

Moving throughout the 1920’s in Paris for him became an art form in of itself in
every meal, aperitif, and communal meeting at a café on the Left Bank.

This morning, I felt blessed to sit at our “café” table and sip café au lait and savor my homemade grapefruit et almonde scone topped with mom’s huckleberry jam. The petite pink grapefruit sat perfectly in its dish, contrasting the serious morose colors of the William Blake painting of the Ten Virgins.

Food can be such an experience, savored and relished. It can even be an act of worship. Yay, verily yes! Communion might come to mind, and while this holy sacrament was Jesus’ charge to the disciples to “Do this in remembrance of Me”, we can even look beyond this and to every aspect of our daily lives other than the Eucharist on Sundays. Think of your morning cup of joe- it can be transformed into… your last sip of peaceful rest before a day of hecticacy (I made that word up). Where you are whisked away to a place where you can linger in life’s little joys… Sound like an International Delight commercial? Yeah, a bit cheesy, I admit. However- let that not distract from my point. Think about your dinner- how it can be a moment to thank God for the taste buds we have to taste curry, anise, basil, nutmeg, sweet & savory. That we have a moment to slow down and abide in Him- whether it is breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert.

In French Women for All Seasons, Mireille Guiliano states: “ The joy of living is in direct proportion to how much pleasure you know how to derive from every aspect of living…the French lifestyle offers examples of delicious experience beyond just the gastronomic. Everything from how we move to how we groom ourselves to how we greet each day has the potential for unlocking pleasure and making life feel fuller.” (!)

I am going to bake some baguettes for dinner tonight to eat alongside a bottle of red wine.
Eat and be well.~