The ingredients of a life are important. Last night as I made dinner, I watched as Cass and I assembled the ingredients for our super. He prepped the pans while I cut the Chanterelle mushrooms. Then he diced the fresh sage and I got the fresh Gnocchi into boiling water. Then I found the broth and heavy cream and he got the fry pan hot.
The Chanterelle mushrooms, picked freshly from Bohemian forests around Prague and sold at market fresh each day, gently sautéed in butter to which fresh sage and a quarter cup of chicken broth and of beer were added. After about a 10 minute sauté, the heat was turned up and water cooked off the liquid until a syrup formed at which point the heat was turned way down and a dollop of heavy cream was stistirred in at the last minute, before mixing and tossing in the gnocchi.
Just a few, good, fresh, complimentary ingredients which, for two people cost about $4….an herb, some mushrooms from a forest floor, some beer from the bottle I was drinking, some broth; and as much heavy cream as goes into my coffee and – voila! – dinner.
The result was stunning, simple, nutritious, life-changing, body-soothing. As the dinner digested with a walk in the park, my mind wandered to our spiritual diets? What ingredients go into my spiritual life? Do I have a diverse diet? Am I ingesting Chanterelles and gnocchi or Twinkies and Cheetos? Do I have vegetables or just meat? Do I have spiritual gout? Do I have spiritual indigestion? Do I have spiritual health based on the ingredients of my life? What mix of prayer, meditation, study of scripture, reading of spiritual leaders, connection to other people, self-awareness, worship, the deliciousness of ecclesial beauty, the rigor of spiritual exercise..what is the list of ingredients in my spiritual life and what results indicate that this is a good set of ingredients?
Or do I just go to church and check the “I am a good person because I go to church.” box on my list of life choices? IS God a way of life or a good-luck charm?
“You are what you eat.” says the old saying…ingredients…
Physically, we know – even scientifically – that we are what we eat. But spiritually, we are what we adore.
