I LOVE SHAUNA NIEQUIST’S WRITING!
She writes as if she took a pencil to my soul. No doubt many, many readers feel the same
way. Shauna’s COLD TANGERINES and
BITTERSWEET were just bread crumbs leading us to and preparing us for BREAD
& WINE. I feel as if she spoon-fed us on her first two books and left us
thirsting for more. Not many can write,
and engage the reader as Shauna does.
Each time you sit down to read BREAD & WINE you will be nourished
and loved as if you were amongst her family and friends, sharing in her life
events around her table. You will both “live”
and “laugh” out loud when Shauna does, and tears will surely stain the pages as
you weep during her times of great sorrow.
You will be hungry and fed, thirsty and quenched, and when you get to
the last page you will want nothing less than to come to the table; not alone, but with your friends, family and
community.
Who doesn’t want to learn to feed themselves and their family and
friends? BREAD & WINE teaches you to
learn to nourish yourself so you can nourish those you love, with not only
food, but compassion, hope and encouragement.
“Learn, little by little, meal by meal, to feed
yourself and the people you love, because food is one of the ways we love each
other, and the table is one of the most sacred places we gather.”
Don’t just step into the kitchen, run, dance and live in it! Share yourself and your traditions and make
new memories with each and every dish that you prepare. People don’t care how good you cook, they
care how well you love them and how they feel at home at your table. Some of my greatest memories growing up were
in my granny’s kitchen touching, tasting and preparing. Invite people to your table to be nourished, to
be blessed, to cry, to laugh and to love until everyone is full. Use your fine dishes and your cloth napkins
to wipe each other’s tears of joy, laughter and heartache, or as Shauna says,
just let it all run down your chin.
“I want it all -- all the tastes, all the smells,
all the stories and memories and traditions, all the textures and flavors and
experiences, all running down my chin, all over my fingers.”
“What people are craving isn't perfection. People
aren't longing to be impressed; they're longing to feel like they're home.”
I relate so well with Shauna and her love for food; the preparation, planning
and the beauty of its presentation.
Meals should be made picture-ready not picture-perfect, even if it’s peanut
butter and jelly prepared with your child’s hands. No, especially when prepared by your child’s
hands. Who says the most simplest of
things can’t be beautiful. Beauty is
everywhere and you will find it when you look for it.
“I'm a person of great appetites. I love to eat. I
love to talk about food, think about food, play with food.”
“I'm never happier than when I'm planning a menu or
passing bowls around my table, fragrant and full.”
Shauna speaks of sitting around the table while letting the pillar candles burn down, resting, breathing with the ones we love. What better place to be than where you are? Practice present over perfect.
Shauna speaks of sitting around the table while letting the pillar candles burn down, resting, breathing with the ones we love. What better place to be than where you are? Practice present over perfect.
“…that the God who loves us will bring new life to our worn-out hearts
this year and every year, that we'll live, truly and deeply, in the present,
instead of waiting, waiting, waiting for perfect.”
“When the table is full, heavy with platters, wine glasses scattered, napkins twisted and crumpled forks askew, dessert plates scattered with crumbs and icing, candles burning down low--it's in those moments that I feel a deep sense of God’s presence and happiness. I feel honored to create a place around my table, a place for laughing and crying, for being seen and heard, for telling stories and creating memories.”
Shauna encourages us to invite people to our table. Love people enough to feed them and nourish them. Get comfortable, barefoot is totally acceptable, silence the phones and ask God’s Blessings on both the food you are about to eat and the hands that prepared it. I pray your dessert isn’t some sweet, syrupy, sticky mess, but a continual sharing of stories told while the dishes piled high in the kitchen are perfectly fine just where they are. “Come to the table, dinner’s at six.”
“When the table is full, heavy with platters, wine glasses scattered, napkins twisted and crumpled forks askew, dessert plates scattered with crumbs and icing, candles burning down low--it's in those moments that I feel a deep sense of God’s presence and happiness. I feel honored to create a place around my table, a place for laughing and crying, for being seen and heard, for telling stories and creating memories.”
Shauna encourages us to invite people to our table. Love people enough to feed them and nourish them. Get comfortable, barefoot is totally acceptable, silence the phones and ask God’s Blessings on both the food you are about to eat and the hands that prepared it. I pray your dessert isn’t some sweet, syrupy, sticky mess, but a continual sharing of stories told while the dishes piled high in the kitchen are perfectly fine just where they are. “Come to the table, dinner’s at six.”
“I want you to tell someone you love them, and
dinners at six.”
“The table is where we store up for those days, where we log minutes and hours building something durable and strong that gets tested in those terrible split seconds. And the table is where we return to stitch our hearts back together after the breaking.”
“More than anything, I want you to come to the table. In all sorts of ways, both literally and metaphorically, come to the table.”
“The table is where we store up for those days, where we log minutes and hours building something durable and strong that gets tested in those terrible split seconds. And the table is where we return to stitch our hearts back together after the breaking.”
“More than anything, I want you to come to the table. In all sorts of ways, both literally and metaphorically, come to the table.”
http://www.shaunaniequist.com/
