Lenten Dietary Adventure: Final Follow-up
Monday Apr 13, 2009 Posted by:Tim
Well, Easter never tasted so sweet- and boy do I mean
literally!!
I must say in the midst of some of the most profound services this week, our Maundy Thursday annual dinner liturgy with actual foot-washing, and our Good Friday alternative experiential stations of the cross, it was extra excruciating not to be able to fully partake with of the community. And compounding it, out of state family happen to be in town and I had made especially sure that I was pouring my new brother-in-law’s favorite type of wine- but I could not raise a glass of the same contents with him; sure I had the sparkling water going, and could clink a “cheers,” but it really did feel different at a most ancestral level- like medieval folk needing to drink from the same bottle to forge better trust and of course ensure neither would poison the other- OK so I get a little ridiculous.
But what a difference this day makes. To toast together, to break the same pita bread – my brother and sister-in-law hosted a most scrumptious Greek-themed Easter supper- it really was splendiforously delightful- the full blanket of foods laid before us, before me, feeling like I was living again Peter’s dream.
In the end, this month-and-a-half dietary adventure free of sugar, dairy, wheat, caffeine and alcohol has expanded my culinary horizons. I discovered foods I truly enjoy that I would never have considered before. I wound up losing some 7 or 8 pounds of pudge padding. The act of chewing slowly and chewing more, sensing and grateful for the fully flavor of things, this is a way of being that I hope oozes out to more and more parts of my life. I also got a glimpse at the power I let certain foods have on my emotional health- the reward, or the “need,” in order to get through the long haul; and guess what, it so happens I had plenty of long hours this season and made it through probably better than I might have...
Tom & I wrote a song for this morning’s service, with the chorus, “This day... Is the day... That the stone rolls away...” I couldn’t help but share with a buddy after sound check, a parody that just came to me, “This day... Is the day... That the scone rolls my way!” My wife, the ever asker of timely questions, blurts this one out, “Would you do it again?” Well, maybe, but this day the scone rolls my way!
I must say in the midst of some of the most profound services this week, our Maundy Thursday annual dinner liturgy with actual foot-washing, and our Good Friday alternative experiential stations of the cross, it was extra excruciating not to be able to fully partake with of the community. And compounding it, out of state family happen to be in town and I had made especially sure that I was pouring my new brother-in-law’s favorite type of wine- but I could not raise a glass of the same contents with him; sure I had the sparkling water going, and could clink a “cheers,” but it really did feel different at a most ancestral level- like medieval folk needing to drink from the same bottle to forge better trust and of course ensure neither would poison the other- OK so I get a little ridiculous.
But what a difference this day makes. To toast together, to break the same pita bread – my brother and sister-in-law hosted a most scrumptious Greek-themed Easter supper- it really was splendiforously delightful- the full blanket of foods laid before us, before me, feeling like I was living again Peter’s dream.
In the end, this month-and-a-half dietary adventure free of sugar, dairy, wheat, caffeine and alcohol has expanded my culinary horizons. I discovered foods I truly enjoy that I would never have considered before. I wound up losing some 7 or 8 pounds of pudge padding. The act of chewing slowly and chewing more, sensing and grateful for the fully flavor of things, this is a way of being that I hope oozes out to more and more parts of my life. I also got a glimpse at the power I let certain foods have on my emotional health- the reward, or the “need,” in order to get through the long haul; and guess what, it so happens I had plenty of long hours this season and made it through probably better than I might have...
Tom & I wrote a song for this morning’s service, with the chorus, “This day... Is the day... That the stone rolls away...” I couldn’t help but share with a buddy after sound check, a parody that just came to me, “This day... Is the day... That the scone rolls my way!” My wife, the ever asker of timely questions, blurts this one out, “Would you do it again?” Well, maybe, but this day the scone rolls my way!