Principles In Practice

Dropped everything and went to Pierce County Feast, where there was a potluck. I hadn't prepared or brought food, and even though I had some pea soup before I left, by the time consultation was over I was hungry. Every entree had chicken or beef or cheese in it, but I picked at a few tablespoons anyway. Meanwhile I was telling the hostess, since she asked, about the Plant Based Nutrition online eCornell course I'm taking. I got all the way through my China Study Conversation, and suddenly she jumped up. "I forgot! I need to put out the whipped cream for the pie!"

Later we went to Ruby Tuesday where I ate a salad without dressing for the first time in my life, counting various "diets" in the past. I also ate a half baked potato nude except for salt. [It's going to take awhile to get rid of the salt.]

We went grocery shopping, kind of dicey this time as circumstances have made me low in cash. I bought an entire shopping cart full of groceries for less than $100 because, with a few exceptions, I was buying all dried beans and oats, etc, and vegetables. It reminded me of when I was Pearl's age and I rode my bicycle, tricked out with folding pannier grocery baskets, to the neighborhood market and kept a running total of my purchases as I selected groceries, because I was paying with cash.

I'm planning to try out ground flax seed on my oatmeal instead of crushed pecans. The soy milk stays, for now.

Leaves and Branches

We attended Feast yesterday evening at Jefferson Park in Tacoma, in the traditional south end of the park beneath the two trees. Usually at least once every summer, Feast, usually held in homes, is held in this park. The Bulletin advertised this as a potluck, so I tried out my pressure cooker to make beans and a dish called Coriander Carrots, from the cookbook by Lorna J. Sass, which I served together over brown rice. I was the only person who knew it was a potluck.

The weather, which has been warm all summer, turned cool and breezy last night, so that by the end of Feast we were quite chilled. I was happy to have a nutritious dish to serve, along with the hostess' nutritious and delicious zucchini bread.

We sat in a circle of chairs, reading from Baha'i Writings and prayers, people I have known for many years, and some I have just met, a circle of unity. Then I looked up and saw the branches of the trees intertwined overhead, so that it was impossible to distinguish which branches and leaves belonged to which trees, although the trunks were far apart on the ground.

It seemed to me that this was our unity, that we "eat with the same mouth"; the unity of the early believers in Iran who never knew whose cloak or shoes they donned before going out of the house to teach.