It rained hard and quite steadily for the past two days. I am working against a tight deadline for my ECF project and my girl is having a hard enough time with pain that we may need to bump up her surgery. Tomorrow I will be preaching and celebrating at St Paul’s, Lowndesboro to help my buddy Joe; it’s a tough Gospel reading about weeds and tares–a guest preacher treads carefully through passages like that. And weekends continue to be hard.

Because of the rain, I could not do much outdoors and on both days, I was starting to go a bit crazy so I pulled out the instructions. Literally. I have something coming up that I need to prepare a special dish for that uses brioche bread. Then too, peach season is at its height; I have peaches the size of a man’s fist sitting on my counter in the kitchen.

My dad was relentless with about the importance of “reading the instructions”. I did not know when he insisted over, and over, and over again that we read the instructions that he was offering us a way to navigate through fear, anxiety or hesitation to try all sorts of things. “I can do that.” Some of the best moments of my life have been when I have read instructions and thought, “Yup. I can. I can do that.”

Bread baking and canning are not heroic or that inspired or audacious. But reading and following the instructions carefully to make a loaf of Brioche and to prepare and can Peach-Lemon Thyme Jam gave me some freedom from grief and loneliness. Especially the canning was beautiful along the way too.

La Brioche

Freshly Peeled Chilton County Peaches

The Other Fruit of My Labor: 6 Half Pints of Peach-Lemon Thyme Jam