vegan – food that builds community

Essence of Mother

Have you ever tried to capture the essence of someone you know well, in a single story?

Shame and stupidity TEA, three little letters, that, when interspersed with others, can bring comfort, solace, and healing, but left together on their own they detonate into an explosion of grief, shame, humiliation, regret, and stupidity. I have lived, grown up, worked, or visited in 22 different countries of the world. For all of them,… Continue reading TEA!

I wish we still had the stocks

You could tell she was miserable. Her sullen angry face stared straight ahead from the audience’s front row, her lips clenched tightly together. You’d think we were torturing her – we probably were. This concert took place in a bygone era when folk were allowed to come together. It was a simple audience participation… Continue reading I wish we still had the stocks

Nowruz!

Nowruz! The Amazing Zoroastrians Oh dear. We missed it –Persian New Year. Why, you ask, is that important to our culture here whose immediate worry is how to find hand gel, toilet paper, and tinned tomatoes in empty-shelved grocery shops, where every bit of community comfort is denied to us because we can’t hug? WELL,… Continue reading Nowruz!

Greeting Cards

Receiving “Faithful friends that are dear to us, gather near to us once more…” goes the cheesy Christmas song we crooned last night at the winter sing-along. I love receiving cards and letters and news and emails, and telephone calls. I love getting them all. I put cards up all over the house, sorted… Continue reading Greeting Cards

Doors — more humiliation

Doors – and More Humiliation! One thing about building a community is its individual welcome, and DOORS are part of that welcome. I love the wreaths that my Indiana sister puts on her front door, that change according to the season, how attractive and friendly they are. When I arrived in England as a… Continue reading Doors — more humiliation

A Community of Displaced People

Alexandria, Egypt. Summer, 1966, during the Six Day War. 4.am. We arose silently, dressed, gathered our meagre belongings and went outside. The police, also silent, led us into their waiting cars, the engines idling softly, ready to move.. Then quietly, quietly, they drove off. They suggested that we duck down if we saw anyone on… Continue reading A Community of Displaced People

March

March Storm. On a recent morning walk, a passenger jet prepared to land on my head. It didn’t. And it wasn’t. It was only the wild wild wind thrashing the trees– spraying the raindrops into showers of rainbows in the surprising, intermittent sunshine. The fierce roar was intense. Sometimes I was hustled along,… Continue reading March

American Thanksgiving in a Non American Country

Well, we had roast turkey, sausages, gravy, apple-celery-bacon cornbread stuffing with cashews and cranberries, Amish sweet potatoes with apple and mace, mashed potatoes, squash with crystallised ginger, green beans almondine, broccoli, cranberry-orange relish, the obligatory creamed onions (which, I understand, is an Upstate New York addition), and mince-peach pie, apple-cherry pie, and of course, pumpkin… Continue reading American Thanksgiving in a Non American Country

A Community Farewell

Well, it had to happen eventually, didn’t it — time to leave this community. people who have welded themselves into our hearts, who know us well, have seen us in pajamas and no make up hanging up clothes, have lived through our tragedies and us theirs. Friends who have shared the ghoulish parts of… Continue reading A Community Farewell