Our Invocation: Can we truly gain something from hunger? Perhaps we gain an appreciation or an understanding of the situation of those who do not get enough to eat. Perhaps we acquire sensitivity to those who live at or below the poverty level. Perhaps we learn how best to relate to our impoverished neighbors and fellow human beings. May our gains be for good!
I exercised this morning, and found that my energy level was lower, though I am not sure there is an easy explanation for this. I have had small aches and pains, as I said, during the past week, and I attribute them, perhaps, to a diminution of my protein intake and fewer nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables than I am accustomed to eating. But I still was able to get in my hour on the elliptical machine. And still no weight loss even with the Challenge overall reduced food intake.
For breakfast again I relied on a potato-based breakfast, including the final portion of the yogurt and some chili still left over. I received a kind invitation to the Bar Mitzvah luncheon, but I decided to remain on the Challenge despite my Temple duties; I returned home after teaching a future Bar Mitzvah student, and fixed some of the tuna (which we had not eaten yet) with celery and onions, over a couple of baked potatoes. At dinner time, I was engaged in Temple activities in Rockford, IL, at the 100th anniversary party of Tempe Beth El. I traveled to Rockford with a wonderful delegation of congregants and we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant. I ate a lettuce salad, plus a sliced egg, and a slice of Italian bread. We shunned the dessert, thinking that there would be some kind of reception after the 100th anniversary concert we attended (which was great – a reunion of Danny Friedlander and Jeffrey Klepper), but there was no dessert there. So I had a banana with some peanut butter when I returned home.
I think that I was more tired yesterday than I had been before, yet the evening was fun and always a good time with my congregants. My level of patience did not wane any more than I reported earlier in the week. So I think I received adequate calories, but the quality of the calories was not usual for me.
Pam Phillips Olson writes:
ReplyDeleteThis is how we began:
We wanted to make two main courses for suppers that would last two nights each.
We chose a meal from Steve's mom's traditions and one from mine.
So Tuna Casserole with elbow macs, cream of mushroom soup, tuna, peas and cheddar. This came out so well and was delicious.
We got 2 suppers each and one lunch out of it.
The Meatloaf made one dinner and four sandwiches!
It looked and tasted wonderful.
It was a $5.07 pack of ground round. I stretched it with oatmeal, which I hope counteracted the high cholesterol, ketchup, onion flakes, chopped pepper and one egg.
The dishes were reminders of our mothers who both grew up with little extra money.
Thoughts:
There is an art to cooking plain good food.
Like dancing, it is hard do it when you are feeling down. If you haven’t grown up with cooking being part of your life…watching as a child, the hands that hold you also beating an egg, it isn’t second nature to you and requires too much energy and thought.
Feelings:
We were surprised that we could make our almost $60.00 stretch so far, also how good the food looked and tasted. That feeling was supplanted by humility.
I sit with women who eat ramen noodle soup and packaged gravy on bread.
One loves bananas when she can get them at a food pantry, that's a huge treat. She says she feels “healthy” after she eats a banana.
Another woman eats very little so that her teenaged son can eat his fill.
She cleans her apartment daily and loves holidays when she can cook a real meal with a food pantry chicken or shop with a gift card for a roast.
There are lives filled with more stress than we can imagine.
The lack of ease, tradition and joy makes everything hard.
So What Did We Learn:
We can’t really know what it is like.
We just need to be sure to be grateful for our lives and to be generous in spirit and actions to others.