Nourished by Ritual - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

Do you remember the bowls you used for your breakfast cereal as a child? I do. We had these light blue hard plastic bowls with rims on them. I ate cereal every morning without fail. Somehow my kids have managed to get us to make them eggs or pancakes or waffles from time to time. When I was growing up, if we had eggs or pancakes for breakfast it was probably a holiday. Waffles were for brunch buffets. Day in and day out I ate cereal out of one of those blue bowls. Maybe it wasn't cereal bowls for you. Maybe you can close your eyes and immediately picture the plates and flatware you used at the dinner table, or the glass you used for juice. What is it for you? Can you see it? These things were not, in themselves, spectacular. They were simply there every day. They did not need to prove themselves as flawlessly designed. We don't remember them for being particularly beautiful. We remember them because we used them over and over again for years. I can still remember placing the bowl on the coffee table in the family room then sliding down the couch onto the floor - because if I sat on the couch itself, the bowl would be too low. So I'd sit criss-cross on the floor and that blue bowl overstuffed with cereal and milk would be just below my chin, and that way I wouldn't spill and maybe my mom wouldn't notice I hadn't used a placemat. I realize now I loved it there.