"Everyone needs to eat, to be nourished. It's simple. It's unending. Food presents us with a vast opportunity: through our experiences of food we can sustain a constant connection to the Sacred that pervades our lives — grace, gratitude, faith, and all the manifestations of sharing with others," writes Alice Peck, editor of this sprightly anthology. The book is divided into nine chapters:
• The Garden: Acts of Faith
• Fish, Fowl, Flesh: Acknowledging Responsibility
• Cooking: Taking Action
• Serving: Nurturing
• Eating: Being Present
• Fasts: Letting Go
• Feasts: Reaping
• Compost: No Beginning and No End
• Grace: Communion
The various practices and rituals involving food connect us with others in surprising ways. Alison Luterman ponders a piece of fruit and comes up with the following:
"Strawberries are too delicate to be picked by machine. The perfectly ripe ones even bruise at too heavy a human touch. It hit her then that every strawberry she had ever eaten — every piece of fruit — had been picked by calloused human hands. Every piece of toast with jelly represented someone's knees, someone's aching back and hips, someone with a bandana on her wrist to wipe away the sweat. Why had no one told her about this before?"
It is a spiritual perspective that enables us to see these meanings and connections. Nancy Willard and Jane Goodall help sensitize us to the consciousness of the animals we eat. Edward Espe Brown and Jules Lester describe how cooking brings them to the Sacred. In an essay titled "Sugar-Frosted Memories," Amanda Cook delivers some of the delights discovered in serving food to others. Marc David believes that "how we eat is a reflection of how we live," and his essay probes the value of eating with dignity. The selections in this anthology are from many faith traditions and include a smorgasbord of graces for use at meals.
