Bread and Life

Bread for myself is a material question. Bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one.

-Nikolai Berdyaev

If bread is the first necessity of life, recreation is a close second.

- Edward Bellamy

My up-the-street-neighbor, KH, came down last night bearing a loaf of bread. It was so fresh from the oven that it might have burned my hands had she not wrapped it in brown paper to keep it hot until she arrived. I lost no time cutting a slice and slathering it with butter (actually margarine, but anything yellow and spread on bread is called "butter" in our family....unless it is obviously mustard). The fragrance impelled me to eat the slice as soon as it was prepared,while the butter was still melting into the hot bread.

This was not the first time KH had gifted me with such a delicacy. The results are never exactly the same since she adds different grains / nuts / seeds, whatever sounds good to her at the time of baking. She says it is a no-knead recipe, but the results belie that fact. A lovely, crisp outer crust with a dense (dependent on the additions), moist inner texture, the bread not only tastes wonderful, it is good for you.

The friends and neighbors in my community make life easier and more interesting. We walk and talk together, write together, and break bread together. I am blessed.