Tuesday 30 September 2025
I found time to attend midweek mass, and to take the small bag of things to church for harvest festival.
Harvest makes me think of school. As I remember it there were colourful piles of fruit and vegetables, sheafs of wheat and loaves. Maybe a sack of potatoes. But with my imagination set to stun, I added my collection of tinned soup, jam, pasta and other vegetarian options to the big pile of plastic bags full of non-perishables at the back of the church.
Harvest also makes me think of family. Of gathering round a table to enjoy a big meal. Much like the Waltons. Or the Boswells — my two families of reference. With help-yourself-bowls of steaming vegetables, and sauces, and stuffings, and grandma’s signature something.
I looked at the tinned food and wondered if the recipients might get any of that. Food as something more than sustenance. And how hard it is to replace that, and how much harder that is to give.