Editor's Note: Studio Potter gave free access to the online journal to 387 educational institutions to support their unexpected transition to remote learning. We invited educators, writing, "...give your students a writing assignment – Create an article for Studio Potter. You screen the submissions and send your top three to Jill Foote-Hutton at ... for consideration. Selected student authors will be published on STUDIOPOTTER.ORG and will receive a one year membership to Studio Potter." JILL ALLEN, Visiting Assistant Professor at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, shared a sweet gem by Jess Arends.
Cooking has become my favorite form of prayer. It is the earth without dirt. The sounds of release. The taste of fullness. I grew up with a father who spent all his Saturdays in our kitchen. I would sit on the counter, waiting and assisting – in tostones [fried plantains], in onion soup, in oatmeal cookies, in homemade popcorn. We embraced food. My father and I spent summers in the soil, begging our tomatoes to turn red. Food is a part of my personality, a part of the way I love. My father taught me to love people through meals, to add extra cinnamon to give them warmth. I remember, and still have, favorite plates, bowls, and wooden spoons. Often, I use the same ones every day. I have a spoon that was my great-grandmother’s, which I use to stir boiling pasta. I have a bowl I use as ritual at 6pm, for it holds dinner better than any other. Though – what held my food never held me too.
