A recent lectionary reading for Lent featured the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:5-42). As I read the passage, I noticed something about the woman that I hadn’t seen before. I’m struck by the image of Jesus being vulnerable to a vulnerable person, asking her for water.
Eating is a daily act of healing and hope for a hurting world. This realization encouraged me to say yes when approached about writing a plant-forward (vegetarian) cookbook published by MennoMedia in 2020 called Sustainable Kitchen: Recipes and inspiration for plant-based, planet conscious meals.
In front of my apartment is an unmaintained median. Rain + unmaintained space = AJ is going to grow something. I took advantage of the situation and planted beans in the median. It was mischievous, it had little risk, and it opened up a possibility for many collateral benefits.
Growing up Southern Baptist in West Virginia in the 1990s and early 2000s, Anna Rollins heard one message clearly: Your body is a liability. Like many evangelical Christian women raised at a time when secular America became consumed with diet culture and evangelicalism sought to control young women through purity culture, Rollins tried to transcend her body altogether, restricting her eating and exercising obsessively.
This year I’m wondering if gratitude is more about my eyes. Is gratitude about seeing the things around us in a more generous lens?
As we approach Thanksgiving, I am mindful that the “first thanksgiving” meal in 1621 was a hunted harvest feast. Reports are that colonists hunted wild turkey for the celebration, and Wampanoag hunters brought five deer. Hunting was essential to survival.
