Inspired by Amanda Blake Soule’s {this moment}, I’m here beginning a Friday ritual: posting a single photo from the week capturing a moment or an idea expressing something related to {family, faith, food; joyful justice & bread of life} —a Moment of Joy. If you would like to do the same, leave a link to your photo in the comments! Read more
The poet William Carlos Williams wrote the following lines, made famous by Wendell Berry: There is nothing to eat seek it where you will, but the body of the Lord. The blessed plants and the sea, yield it to the imagination Intact. Jesus said, “I am the true manna.” Remember the Sunday School story about the manna given to the Israelites? It kept them alive, the story goes, even in a wilderness where nothing could grow. But, of course, eventually,... Read more
From about age 15 or so, Audrey Hepburn was my idol. I worshiped the iconic film star, watching her movies again and again, poring over books about her life, and searching for images of her online. I could have done worse. Hepburn was, by most accounts, an extraordinarily lovely person, both inside and out. In Roman Holiday–my favorite Audrey movie–she’s lovely without trying to be, and the beauty and dignity of her character is apparent even as she portrays a... Read more
Five years ago, when we lived in California, our green bean plants were producing half a kitchen garbage bag of green beans per day. It got to the point where we had to take garbage bags of green beans in the car and drive around town (a very small town) to dish out green beans to everyone we knew (and even some people we didn’t really know.) We knew that we’d soon be moving to Scotland, and so putting some beans... Read more
I used to be a literal navel gazer. Well, almost. I didn’t sit around looking at my navel, but I did pinch it. A lot. Because I was checking for pinch-ability. I wanted to be able to pinch nothing. And so, for years of my life, I arranged my interests and activities around my navel–the over-exercising, the under-eating, the hours in front of the mirror and on the scale. Sad, no? Let me tell you, I have cried actual tears about the years... Read more
(or, the dilemmas of Sunday Coffee Hour) Recently I talked with a woman who’s in recovery from bulimia. “We’d never bring a bunch of recovering alcoholics into a room full of booze,” she said, “but you can’t really avoid food, and especially not at church.” Indeed, eating and drinking together is an important part of the community life in most churches, whether it’s limited to the celebration of communion (or Lord’s Supper, Mass, or Eucharist) or extended in “coffee hour”... Read more
I’m ridiculously happy about basil. It’s growing like mad, this basil that started out months ago as seeds started inside, and yesterday I pulsed cups and cups of it in the food processor, adding just enough olive oil to keep the processor running smoothly, poured that green stuff into a silicone muffin tin to freeze, then finally popped the little discs of green into freezer bags, to be deployed sometime this winter as pesto, in soups and maybe even in... Read more
Does the Bible teach________(fill in the blank) about healthy eating? There are plenty of ‘Christian diets’ out there. Over the past years, I’ve read every Christian diet book I could get my hands on. I even read a whole book ABOUT Christian diet books. (It’s by R.Marie Griffith and it’s really interesting.) But no, I don’t believe that the Bible teaches any particular diet. But that doesn’t mean the Bible has nothing to say about food–far from it! But a theology of... Read more
Although I’ve been writing about food, eating, and how they relate to faith for years, it’s taken me some time to start my own blog. So here it is! You can read about it, and me, see some of my favorite resources, some of the pieces I’ve written elsewhere, and take a look at the FAQs to get a better sense of what this blog is–and will be–about. Thanks so much for stopping by! Read more
Rachel Marie Stone
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