On My Mind Monday

These passages from Blood, Bones & Butter by chef Gabrielle Hamilton...

I quietly thrilled to be packed into my sleeping bag right up next to them.  I felt cocooned by the thick crescendoing song of the crickets, that voluptuous blanket of summer night humidity, the smell of wood smoke, the heavy dew of the tall grass around us, the necessary and anchoring voices, giggles, farts and squeals of disgust of my older siblings.  This whole perfect night when everyone is still, pretty much, intact and wholesome, is where I sometimes want the party to stop.


When I first finished this description of the night before the BIG party, the calm before the storm, I was reminded of all the excitement of Christmas Eve.  The contentment and anticipation are palpable.  Then I laughed because I'm also reminded of advice my Mom imparted to me over the years.  She used to say, You have to know when to leave.  To her leaving when the party was in full swing, was more important than being fashionably late.  I'm still trying to heed that advise.

Slowly the meadow filled with people and fireflies and laughter - just as my father had imagined - and the lambs on their spits were hoisted off the pit and onto the shoulders of men, like a funeral procession, and set down on the makeshift plywood-on-sawhorse tables to be carved.  Then the sun started to set and we lit the paper bag luminaria, which burned soft glowing amber, punctuating the meadow and the night, and the lamb was crisp-skinned and sticky from slow roasting, and the root beer was frigid and it caught, like an emotion in the back of my throat.


I want to be invited to this party and I don't even like lamb.  The imagery of the emotion caught in her throat is powerful.  How often to our senses transport us back in time to places, but also feelings?


from him we learned how to create beauty where none existed, how to be generous beyond our own means, how to change a small corner of the world just by making dinner for a few friends.  From him we learned how to make and give luminous parties.

We learn something from everyone who touches us in life.  There are nuggets, bestowed on us like treasures and also sometimes lessons we would rather remain oblivious to.