The Food of the Gods

This is the wrap up of a long 2 weeks without Chris. We have missed him sooooo much and we are all giddy with excitement at his return tomorrow. Today the kids didn't have school so they just played. All the friends have gone home now, the two little girls have gone to bed and I just got back from a 10:00pm run to the grocery store to fulfill a craving.....pomegranates. Olivia started begging early in the evening then Chloe chimed in and I had been craving them all day. There is something about a pomegranate....when fall comes and pomegranate season begins I get so reminiscent about my childhood. My love affair with pomegranates began with Moses....yes really, Moses, or should I say Charlton Heston. There is a scene in the 10 Commandments when Moses has come back to Egypt to fulfill the Lords purpose and he has an encounter with Nefretiri. She is jealous about the new woman in his life and tries to seduce him away. She questions him about this new woman, a sheep herder and asks about her physical attributes. At one point she says "Are her lips reeeeeed like pomegranates" I had to add the extra e's because she draws the word out in the movie. Well for some reason when I heard Nefretiri refer to that fruit I felt that I, this poor little girl living in a small town in Canada, would somehow garner some status and beauty by partaking of this rare exotic fruit. I know that is so silly but such are our youthful imaginings.
So each year when September rolled around I could not get enough of them. My Mom would always groan when I walked in with one and I got the lecture.....those things will stain anything they touch....you be careful and don't eat it in the living room. They were only available for 4-6 weeks of the year and then gone. the funny thing is that I bought them at the candy store. They were sold as a confections in my town. Right there along with the Circus Peanuts, Pepchews and Mojo's was a basket of pomegranates. I would run down to Ken's Confectionery and pick out the reddest, biggest pomegranate I could. That was the only time of the year that fruit tempted me more than candy! I guess I have passed on the love to my children because I came home tonight with a bag of 6 pomegranates and Chloe, Olivia, and I sat in mesmerize silence as we opened and enjoyed those sweet juicy seeds. It was perfection. Ok the pomegranate story wouldn't be complete without me telling you about the BEST pomegranate I have ever eaten. When I was in Jerusalem we were driving near the Gaza Strip when I looked out the bus window and saw acres and acres of shrub like trees that had cantaloupe size red things. We yelled to the bus driver "Hey what is the crop over there?" he yelled back "Pomegranates" Several of us then yelled....no screamed "STOP" We got out and the land owner, who was near, gave us permission to each take one. Now I want to emphasize that this was no exaggeration....they were as large as a cantaloupe. I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life. As I sat down in the bus to open and savor this moment I was sooo happy, it was pure bliss. There are moments in your life when the stars seem to align and the universe seems to combine to bring absolute, complete happiness. This was that moment for me. I couldn't believe that I was looking at a pomegranate so big.....I didn't know it was possible, and the fact that this moment was happening in the Holy Land, the Land that Moses and his people were seeking and inherited........wow. What more can I say. I was completely happy in that moment!!