Thursday, January 04, 2024

Conservation and consumption as forms of prayer

As the holidays draw inexorably towards their end (Graham returns to campus this weekend), we continue to chip away at their bounty in the kitchen. We have a lot of bread and sweets (many of these rather mediocre) to work through, moreover largely without Graham's participation since he is still eating a constrained diet while his mouth recovers from the removal of his wisdom teeth last Friday.

This week I am working at home instead of going in to the office to spend more time with Graham and nudge him towards a little greater proactivity in his search for an internship for next summer. As a side effect of that I am mindfully working through our surplus of baked goods, bearing in mind what I wrote about a post or two back, namely that I could stand to lose a few pounds.

This morning for breakfast I made a one-egg omelet with a sliver of smoked salmon and put it on a piece of toast from the batard that Mary had brought home to supplement some festive meal a week and change back. This loaf had spent some time in the freezer, mind you, when our surfeit was particularly large. Now it is being whittled down.

As I sliced it I was transported back to the early days of the pandemic, the really good times, when we were all sequestered together in our homes and worried whether there would be enough of this or that sort of food or paper product in the store. That condition rather focused the mind and aided appreciation of what we had, so that every meal was perceived as an occasion for gratitude. It is a good place to be. 

No comments: