In the chapter I just finished, she uses a loaf of bread as a metaphor of life. The moments, the people, the thoughts, and all the rest are the crumbs that make up each unique loaf. Macrina writes about some of the crumbs in her loaf: love of trees, silence, sorrow, people, and a few others. The one that resonates most with me, though, follows:
Sitting at someone's feet
At someone's feet has not been my favorite place to hang out. As I grow older, however, I have such a yearning to sit at the feet of one who is wise. I long for wisdom, and I've discovered that I can't get wisdom from books. Wisdom comes from listening to life. If you find someone who has lived life fully and is still full of life, you have found a treasure. Learn from him or her. Lean on her heart as John leaned on Jesus at the Last Supper. Sit at his feet as Mary sat at the feet of Jesus. It is not only at the table that we find nourishment. Sometimes the food we need is found in lowly places. Until we learn to sit at one another's feet, we will starve at our lavish banquet tables.
Obviously there are myriad crumbs in my life and your life. I, like Macrina, have been quite grateful to sit at the feet of many wise people over the years; they have been and continue to be nourishing crumbs in my own loaf. It leads me to another quote that I love from the book:
When your depth meets the depth of another person, what a sacrament that can be!
Let us see all the crumbs in our loaves as sacraments that bring us closer to our Great Baker.
Let us walk in the holy presence.
