This is a grilled cheese sandwich with jalapeno peppers. This crunchy package of cheesy, spicy, buttery wonderfulness is practically sacramental to me.
When I need comfort food, as I do right now, I go to soups and grilled cheese sandwiches. Every culture has their version of comfort food and the reason Americans are so over-weight is that the fast food industry has been able to see that. The fear and exhaustion of our culture turns us to comforting flavors and our biology has been programed to want fat and salt as a meas by which to keep our bodies fed in times of need. When we might die of hunger or thirst, our bodies crave fat and salt. But our bodies are not good at differentiating between sadness and crisis. They feel the same to the body trying to survive.
Yesterday, I was chatting with a person I respect. He mentioned that he and his partner were engaged in a body cleanse. I was intrigued and plan to do some research about this. But it occurred to me that the spirit and soul also need a cleansing from time to time.
As Advent approaches, I am wondering what my Rule of Life will be around silence, prayer, kindness, meditation, fasting, feasting and pottery. I am wondering what kind of reset could be possible in Advent and I am wondering that now, so that I can plan for it. My souls is as eager to survive as my body and I sense that it takes some of the same measures, hears some of the same warnings and craves some of the same kinds of feeding.
The “grilled cheese” of my soul is silence. It is in meditation that God can speak and that I can listen and it is in that silent time that my soul-cravings are met. The way to silence is as simple as making a grilled cheese sandwich -very basic ingredients. I find that fancy restaurants frown on grilled cheese sandwiches the way fancy spirituality frowns on silence. Grilled cheese and silence; funny how these very simple things in life are so nutritious and delicious.
