Crumbs

Though we seem to hear a lot about dieting and cutting down on the abundance of food available to us these days,  my world is full of people for whom the idea of food is more of a burden than a blessing.  For many of the children in my life, eating is a challenge that causes a myriad of complex difficulties and makes food an area of stress and profound anxiety for both children and parents.  The ability to get any kind of sustenance from food is difficult often for many different and varied reasons.  Ideas for helping children start to want to eat abound and vary depending on the specific eating challenge.  Some common suggestions include being careful not to show your own anxiety and allowing power struggles to take over by forcing kids to eat.   Children may first need to get used to even the smells of food.  Allow delicious smells of food  to pervade your home.  Come close and kiss your kids after yourself eating something that they can smell and taste on your lips.  Encourage them to simply play with food, touching and feeling it without any pressure to eat.   Sometimes it is helpful to start introducing just little crumbs of food in a way that is not threatening or scary.

Like my children for whom eating is not a pleasurable and life-giving experience, our society is full of aversion to spiritual food.  The very thought of giving sustenance to our souls causes many to gag.  Again the reasons for this aversion are many and varied and usually very understandable.  Many would disagree that food for our souls is even necessary.  I do believe that we are spiritual beings whose souls do crave spiritual relationship with God and with one another.  Yes, maybe I am wrong.  Remember, I am a wondering mother!  So tonight I wonder.  I wonder if without pressure and with fun, others might somehow smell the aroma and warm comfort of God in my home and on my breath.  I encourage myself and my children to play with the idea of God and activities that facilitate the growth of our souls.  Sometimes I wonder how best to introduce those little crumbs of joy and love in God that can be welcomed and tried by others.  God's crumbs may be the beginning of a lifelong adventure in tasting the goodness and love of a God who cares and wants to be in relationship with us.

Those Ashes

The wood in our fireplace crackles and the steady beat of a fan spews out warmth in our living room as I write this evening.  Regularly I take a precious bucket load of fine ash out to our compost; a special delicacy and topping of potash that I am told will help the growing in our garden as things warm up and spring comes again.

Who would think that ashes would have a sacred place through history?   It is of strange comfort to me that they do.  A place for us after the fire and the burning.  Meaning in the left over ashes of our lives. Hope beyond hope in the grey and lifeless.

Seasons for the burning and the ash.  Take comfort in those seemingly useless and dull remains.  They too, spread over our lives, bring hope and nutrients of growth.  Dreams destroyed and energy burned.  The gift of seemingly nothing.  Keep on going, leaving space to grow.

Before the spring emerges, a time of paring down.  Appreciating the ashes.  Leaving room to listen to that still small whisper, faint in our hearts, that may be God.  Sit and listen in the ashes of these days.