something geeky and gorgeous about traditions

(photo by the lovely J. Lanae)
I make pizza on the same days I bake bread because it's easy that way.

After punching down the dough and dividing it into loaves, I roll the extra flat and bake it on a pizza stone. When I did that yesterday, my little 21-month helper stood on a kitchen chair and insisted on assisting with the cheese (by putting it on the pizza, and then off the pizza and into her mouth).

Watching her, I wondered if some day, when Claire and her future siblings come inside from playing and smell bread baking, they'll know it's pizza night.

Maybe this new rhythm—that I'm creating out of ease—will feel comfortable and reliable to them by then. Maybe it will become tradition. Maybe not.

But traditions. Get me thinking about a word and I'll head to the geekiest dictionary I can find. Definition number one...

tradition: act of delivering into the hands of another

Yes, traditions include a fair amount of repetition and festivity (definition #6). But I love the idea that tradition might first be about giving something, delivering a sort of gift—a gift that passes on a recurring message: "This is what life means. This is how much you mean to me. This is what to rely on when things feel shaky." I hope she gets the message that I mean to send.

6 comments:

Adrienne said...

I love everything about this post.

PS My cousin is going to be emailing you about your nativity sets. I told her you would send her the details (including pricing, etc.) and just gave her your email address.

Deja said...

This is beautiful and wise. And so are you. Please more pictures of you both? She's growing up!

Kikal said...

What a beautiful post; you're such a great writer. And a great mom :)

Mark, Holly and Boys said...

I love this post.

Bryson and Tara said...

Beautiful words and beautiful picture. You're a great mom, Kath.

David/Dad/Doc said...

Thanks Kathy. An interesting thing about traditions is that you often don't know something is a tradition until you go to stop it and everyone involved lets you know that you can't stop doing it, after all "It's a tradition!"