Reflections on a loaf

Every Wednesday or Thursday at OC we'll get some leftover bread from Panera that they were going to throw away. We never know what we'll get, it might be bagels, might be muffins, or, like today, baguettes. Long loaves of white french bread tucked majestically into a large plastic sack. Today there were five, six, maybe seven whole loaves when I got upstairs to where the bread typically ends up.

I always tend to approach the bag slowly, you can never see from the outside what it'll contain until you swim through the excess gray plastic and get down to the contents. I selected one of the loaves and took it, unceremoniously, back down stairs with me. It sat on the table by my desk, in my office, in the sun for the better part of the day. A faint "bread" smell permeating my office and giving the impression that someone had been baking not long ago.

As I got ready to go for the evening I gathered up my things and turned off, and closed down the technology in my office. I put on my coat and tucked my loaf under my arm and went to wait for Lisa to pick me up. As I sat in the lobby waiting for Lisa I found myself wondering about this loaf. It wasn't any less "worthy" of being purchased than the other loaves made at the same time was it? It was, in my opinion, a spectacular looking specimen of a baguette. However I was now the owner of this two and a half foot long crispy crusted baked good. I didn't pay for it, it was free. It was "my loaf" now. I didn't do anything to deserve this loaf. In fact, if we were going by people who "deserved" this loaf there would be many, many more in the world who could use something like this.

Why me? Why this bread? The loaf: unwanted, cast off, given away. Me: undeserving.

Tonight it was a bit of Lisa's dinner. Tomorrow it'll be my lunch. The bread, previously with no real future, now has a purpose. Rescued from the bag that was to be its end, to be cast away, and forgotten about. The forgotten baguette has now filled a purpose.

Seems this little bit of bread has reminded me a bit about myself. So I thank God for the bread, and for the reminder.

~B.