The Alchemey of Bread

Being Bread

“In the here and now dwells the truth that all of us are limited…that we are continuously moving and changing…always longing and reaching for the not-yet. The truth is that we are the energy in these bodies burning through time…Let us meet where we already are, in the elements of our vulnerability.”

Gunilla Norris (Becoming Bread: Meditations on Loving and Transformation, p.9)

          Gunilla Norris’ book, Becoming Bread is a book of poetry using the metaphor of making bread as the transformative experience of turning the elements of earth—flour, water, wheat, yeast, and us—into food for body and soul. Bread making is one of the oldest art forms of humanity. It speaks of the kitchen as a place of transformation; an alchemical laboratory where common ingredients are transformed into gold. She notes the that in the Lord’s prayer, right after “thy will be done,” we ask for our daily bread. Wars have been fought over the lack of it. Just reading this book will change your attitude toward the kitchen.

“Familiar and strange,

The kitchen is a holy place—

alive with possibilities…”

          What I love about the beautiful language of this little book of poetry is that it brings me back to what truly matters—the making of bread and being living bread for one another. We live in times when food has become like everything else, a commodity. We eat out more, take-out more, and we eat in front of the television, or the computer. We have almost forgotten the art of cooking and the loving act of preparing a meal for one another. Meals were once the holy ground around which a family gathered, the centerpiece of every day, the glue that reminded people who belonged together that they were part of a whole. Many of our fondest memories include meals with extended family, cooked by grandmothers or aunties and shared over stories and gossip—the bonding elements.


          A Russian proverb that says, “You can think as much as you like, but you will invent nothing better than bread and salt.” As we succumb to the information age, let us not leave behind our humanity, our bodies in need of nourishment. We are still powered by earthly elements. We require them still for the energy to produce our important thoughts and actions. Let us be as mindful of feeding our bodies as well as we feed our minds. There is nothing better for both body and mind than food that someone has lovingly made, prepared with forethought and planning. That is true nourishment. 

I hope today, you will take enormous pleasure in both cooking and eating, and while you are at it, remember that the earth produced everything in that deliciousness, and produced you, as well. For that, give thanks.

                                                  In the Spirit,
                                                     Jane