(One of my latest endeavors is to help a woman who runs a program to feel the homeless. This is my fourth time, more or less. I no longer use the word homeless because there is such a negative reaction to the word... Anyway, here is today's sharing of food).
Twenty-seven people, some of whom showed up at different times to share lunch and conversation, laughter and opinions. Kathy brought a beautiful home-cooked ham, corn and potatoes, and fudge for dessert, plus things such as potato and macaroni salad. I brought a large concoction which began life as a turnip and rutabaga chowder and grew and grew with homemade chicken soup and some delicious wild rice soaked in homemade spaghetti sauce (Cuban or perhaps I should say Silvian...). I also brought some homemade applesauce which has a funny story to it...
Back when we bought our first house in Weehawken, New Jersey, and I was strapped for cash to feed my hungry children, there was a little fruit and vegetable stand that I bought fresh food from, and one day I saw large boxes of apples on the side and the owner smiled and said these were apples for the deer... They were overripe... I asked if he would sell me some and I came home with a huge box for about $2... When we bought the house it had sustained a bad fire and large portions of the attic and roof were completely gone. BUT: there were two books that, although charred, had survived the fire. One was a Catholic Bible and the other was the Joy of Cooking! And when I came home with my apples it opened to a recipe for plain applesauce! Cored and peeled, with 1/2 cup of water and cinnamon, 20 minutes and OMG! The taste!
So we all had homemade applesauce from apples for the deer....
I ate some of the food today after a prayer of remembrance that the man whose life and death we celebrate this season was born homeless and undocumented...
We met afterwards to talk about how to find a place with a kitchen for rainy days... The difficulties especially for women who are unhoused just to go to the bathroom.... We can't just point and shoot... And how do you stay clean when it is so difficult to take a shower or brush your teeth or even stay healthy!
San Leander's Roman Catholic Church where John Busch was confirmed has closed down Kathy's use of the kitchen because "people were complaining" - much as Pontius Pilate did centuries ago, it is easier to wash your hands of it all... Obviously, we will have to circulate a petition to the higher-ups, including my favorite Papa Francisco, the head of the whole shebang...
Nature was doing its usual flirtatious gorgeous show.... Spring is in the air and so is rebirth!
Feeling moved and inspired that there are people such as Kathy with a ministry that she undertook more than 20 years ago...
It isn't enough to talk about peace, one must believe it. And it isn't enough to believe in it, one must work for it. - Eleanor Roosevelt
True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.
- Mohandas K. Gandhi
Ningún soldado esta obligado a cumplir una ley en contra de la ley de Dios, pues una ley inmoral nadie tiene por qué cumplirla. - Arzobispo Oscar Romero Silvia Antonia Brandon Pérez
True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.
- Mohandas K. Gandhi
Ningún soldado esta obligado a cumplir una ley en contra de la ley de Dios, pues una ley inmoral nadie tiene por qué cumplirla. - Arzobispo Oscar Romero Silvia Antonia Brandon Pérez
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