Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

For Old Times' Sake

Today, I baked bread for old times' sake. Until about a couple of decades ago, I used to bake bread every Sunday as my kids watched and screamed with excitement, "The yeast is now foaming, Mom!"
Why did I do it? The first reason was because I loved the smell of baking bread to permeate through the entire house. Second was probably because I was much younger and such chores did not feel like chores but a delight to me and to the entire family.
About ten years ago, I bought a bread maker and baking the bread became a non-chore again. Nowadays, because both hubby and I watch what we eat and we eat a lot less bread, my bread baking became an occasional thing, like an antique vase one rarely uses but views it from time to time.
Instead of bread, we could just as easily eat wheat kernels or a wheat cereal, but bread is different. Bread is special. Bread has air holes and is soft inside.It tastes good; smells great when fresh; and you can make better sandwiches with it. To tell the truth, I never understood the sandwiches that came in so-called wraps.
Gandhi said: "There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread."
Maybe that is why I love bread. It connects me to humanity.