Banana Nut Bread

“I’m a lonesome chord looking for a song

Still not sure I know where I belong

You’re a tired word looking for a rhyme

Feel as though you’re running out of time

They say Joy will be

Just around the bend

‘Til I’m there

It’s good to have a friend

You’re a quiet whisper dancing in the breeze

I’m a hurricane tumblin’ toward the Keys

You’re a wild dream on a falling star

To me the destination seems too far

They say happiness

Is just around the bend

‘Til I’m there

It’s good to have a friend”

Good to Have A Friend- David Bailey + Peter Mayer

One of the things that I love about doing the h2odevos is the “timeliness” of it all. So, I usually write them on the day before they appear. Cynthia lovely puts bandaids or wrapping paper on the spots that need a little TLC. Brenda and now Sarah at Bread-add some more TLC in order to make them presentable and palatable to a larger audience.

I often refer to it as like baking daily bread. I know it’s gotta go or we don’t have it out there. Every once in a while we dip into the file or the cupboard and pull out an “encore” performance. So, what I feel really good about is that you get that fresh baked smell each and every day.

Father Dom whom you can check out at http://breadmonk.com/ talks about having the “wind knocked out of oneself.” Basically, this is also what happens when kneading the dough takes place. It’s a necessary process in order for the rest of the baking process to unfold. Father Richard Rohr speaks of “falling upward.” No matter what we call it when it is all said and done it’s about suffering.

As I wrote yesterday, you know that my colleague Pastor Ruth Ann and I are in the midst of a season of ministering to families who have suffered. They have had the wind knocked out of them. And I know myself well enough to know that in the midst of giving and also receiving the “wind” i.e. SPIRIT has been knocked out of me as well.

I write those words not to elicit pity or praise, but rather to say to you all that pastors, teachers, nurses, doctors, moms, dads, aunts, uncles, cops, architects, secretaries, butchers, bakers, cash registers folks, students, everyone is at risk at times to feeling the impact of life’s ups and downs.

Peter sings about the value of friends in this whole experience. He also directs us to something “just around the bend.” I really like that and know it to be so very, very true.

Father Dom has a great section in his book which calls for self-reflection and awareness- basically it asks, “what kind of bread are you?” He wrote this long before all the Facebook stuff about what kind of CAR, CHARACTER FROM A MOVIE, Rock Band, etc, etc, etc,

If you don’t read anything else I wrote today, READ THIS!!!!!

Father Dom writes,

“One more kind of bread: banana bread (you were already thinking of it, weren't you?). You probably know how to make banana nut bread: you use the bananas that have gone bad, that are too old and spotty, too bruised to put on the table, bananas that someone else might throw away. Unfortunately, our society does that with people sometimes. We can look at others and say, "You're no good. You're the wrong color. You're too old and spotty to be of any of use. You don't belong because you are not like us." But the banana nut bread person doesn't think that way. The banana nut bread Christians go in search of the people who are bruised, the ones who seem to be going bad, the people who are a different color, the ones who are old and isolated. They seek those people out and they say, "We're going to make something special out of you. You belong here. You have a place and a purpose." And to do that, you have to be a little bit nuts. But in my cookbook, banana nut bread is the best kind of bread to be.  It is the bread that Christ has called all of us to be.” Bake and Be Blessed- Bread Baking as a Metaphor for Spiritual Growth

“see you just around the bend”

rtg