Grateful Today: Bringing food to the grieving

The other day a small package arrived in the mail from my sister-in-law who lives in Minnesota. This is the sweet note she enclosed to accompany a ziploc baggie of wild Minnesota rice.

"Dear Moki,

I have always appreciated the long-standing tradition of bringing (or sending) food to the grieving.
We aren't able to bring the rice to you but may the warmth of the wild rice soup comfort your spirit,

With affection,
Margaret and Bill"

Today that "long-standing tradition" is one I so deeply appreciate. We ate the wild rice in a meal earlier this week, but tonight, Pete is making me  Avgolemono Greek Lemon Egg Soup. I need to be fed, me who is usually the cook, and as I lie on the futon this morning thoughts of grief-comforting filled me: roast organic turkey, the whole turkey roasted and available for eating when the need rises; bone broths, homemade soups of all kinds.

We're working on the roasted organic turkey, and I have made a vegetable broth using the beautiful dark green head of Tatsoi pictured above, which Pete harvested yesterday. Brown rice is cooking in the freshly-made broth, and two of our hens' eggs will be whipped into the soup, and lemon added to give it a zingy kick. I'm heading back to that futon. Grateful for the food sent, brought, and made to comfort my spirit. Thank you Margaret and Bill, and Pete.

Never under-estimate comfort. "Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose--a point on which the soul may fix it's intellectual eye."