Thursday in the Second Week of Lent
You strengthen me more and more;
you enfold and comfort me.
Psalm 71:21
The smells from the kitchen begin to fill me with goodness and the taste of the meal to come. Places are set and an evening glow highlights our dining table. My spouse tends to the cooking and later I will wash the dishes and clean up.
For the moment, I savor this time of preparation. Our conversation is easy, the years of sharing meals and life comfortably familiar. Sometimes it is routine, sometimes ritual, sometimes just the way we do things.
It is also gathering time for us. Our days inevitably unfold in divergent directions and adhere to dissimilar schedules. Even working from home in the same space, our rhythms differ. It is the evening meal that reconnects us. It is time set apart. It is holy.
I light a candle. We say a prayer. We begin.
Image: Anne E. Kitch
