Breadrock

The Bread Rock

Did you ever walk down the street and see a loaf of bread on the tree lawn (or the devil strip if you're from Akron)? A few days ago, I must have been having my Jesus-in-the-desert moment thinking this rock was bread! The first time I saw it, I actually stopped and wondered why someone would drop a loaf of bread there. Was I hallucinating? And then I realized it was just a rock. A breadrock? Ah, clever me. I see lichens on the trees in my neighborhood, and they remind me of snowflakes or fireworks. My imagination sees things all the time that aren't really what they appear to be.

Call the Midwife premiered on PBS on Sunday night in the United States after its run in the United Kingdom earlier this year. It's a historical drama series that is now set in the mid-1960s. Midwives and nuns serve as community health practitioners, and in this particular episode, an outbreak of Diptheria was spreading throughout the east end of London. I found myself yelling to myself, "You're too close! Social distancing!" This is fiction. A reality check was needed.

It's sometimes hard to separate fiction from reality these days. What is real? What is not? Where is the bread I need to sustain life? Where is the rock that will steady me?

Lichen