There’s a well known Zen koan that says, “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” We have to do the work, and we have to keep doing the work — in every area of our lives, no matter how enlightened, or exalted, or exceptional we may become. Like any koan worth its salt, it suggests other things, too: Maybe enlightenment is the chopping of the wood and the carrying of the water. Maybe doing the work is what enlightenment’s all about.
Maybe instead of trying to solve all the problems of the world, or telling everyone else how to solve them, or crumbling into an anxious heap because there are so many problems, we should just do the work that’s in front of us. Maybe the work is as easy as making pie.
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of going to Royer’s Round Top Cafe or Royer’s Pie Haven in Round Top, Texas, you know that they’ve done the work when it comes to pie. And you know that enjoying the fruits of their labor is a real pleasure.
Royer’s is a family company, and Tara Royer Steele grew up working with pie. In doing the work, she came to realize that God can use something as small as pie to build relationships and further his kingdom. She set out to share that message as widely as possible, and now she’s written a book: Eat. Pie. Love: 52 devotions to satisfy your mind, body, and soul.
On Saturday, October 3, from 10 to 11:30 a.m., Tara is going to share her insights about pie, life, and God’s love (and how they criss-cross like a perfectly woven crust) with the Cathedral. Sign up by September 30, and she’ll provide a list of ingredients to make a sweet & salty pie, a copy of her devotional, a journal, and a mug for the coffee you’ll want to drink with the delicious pie she’ll teach you how to make. The cost is just $45, and it promises to be a very satisfying morning of cooking and connecting.
So, for just one morning, put the newspaper aside and stop trying to make it all better. Join Tara, and just do the work: Eat. Pie. Love. There’s meaning in all three, and she’ll show you how they intersect in a very tasty, soul-filling way. Before enlightenment, Eat. Pie. Love; after enlightenment, Eat. Pie. Love.
To register for Eat. Pie. Love: A Virtual Women’s Event, click here.
I am more modest now, but I still think that one of the pleasantest of all emotions is to know that I, I with my brain and my hands, have nourished my beloved few, that I have concocted a stew or a story, a rarity or a plain dish, to sustain them truly against the hungers of the world.
― M.F.K. Fisher