Whatever your belief, or nonbelief, most individuals think about resurrection, or in more generic terms, a life after death. For me, as a Christian, Lent is the time to ponder these mysteries, or some have said, a time to live into the resurrection. But what does that mean? First, I think, you have to believe and then live out that belief. My belief is that resurrection is available here and now while we are alive. This is available to anyone, Christian, non-Christian, non-believer. What I do, the actions I take will live on long after I die, just as the lives of others have lived on within me.

Eternal Life

Simple ingredients in Grandma’s hands shape a recipe for eternal life.

Flour, eggs, water, a dough, binding the love of generations

with ribbons of noodles drying on the kitchen counter.

Those long, thin, ribbons enfold memories

like leaves capture rain, sustenance for its life,

as a bucket holds water with ease allowing us a drink.

I never knew the hands that taught Grandma.

My daughter never knew my grandma,

still she learns that love comes from simple ingredients.

One day her hands will teach all that is remembered

in this moment, and when we eat we remember

the enormous feast, the love of remembered lives.