On the Topic of Food

There's never a bad time to gather with friends and linger over a meal. But when it's cold and snowy outside, the warmth and comfort of a table heavy with food and an evening of conversation at the table seems more appealing than ever.

Food & Fire

For this event—called Feast, appropriately enough— these friends gathered at a local art gallery for a warm winter meal. We cooked several of the dishes over the fire (the gallery didn't have a kitchen), which somehow made everything taste better.

Food & Art

For the photo booth at the event, I painted a canvas with medieval-style images of a feast in the making. Instead of painting a head on the medieval figure in the painting, I cut a hole into the canvas so people could stick their heads through the hole, becoming part of the image for the camera. My friend Liz was a good sport and put her head through the canvas so that I could take a picture of her. She fits in with her medieval surroundings. Looking at it, I half-expect her to hand me that bowl of soup she's holding.

Food & Friends

This particular feast will live on in my memory as one of my favorites: the unbeatable combination of fire-cooked food eaten inside a warm and lovely art gallery with equally lovely people. Before we sat down to eat together, we heard the following poem by John O'Donohue, read aloud to put us in the right frame of mind:

Grace Before Meals

As we begin this meal with grace,
Let us become aware of the memory
Carried inside the food before us:
The quiver of the seed
Awakening in the earth,
Unfolding in a trust of roots
And slender stems of growth,
On its voyage toward harvest,
The kiss of rain and surge of sun;
The innocence of animal soul
That never spoke a word,
Nourished by the earth
To become today our food;
The work of all the strangers
Whose hands prepared it,
The privilege of wealth and health
That enables us to feast and celebrate.

— John O’Donohue, 1956-2008

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My Top Five

"Food" is one of the aspects of a life well-lived I'm posting about in 2018. For the other topics in this year's Top Five, check out this post.