What might be cooking in the kitchen of our sacred Circle? What nourishment for both body and soul? Surely a feast awaits the weary traveler on this path from grief and loss into healing. So many stop here, anguished and isolated, seeking answers, prayers, comfort, guidance. For each, the journey has been an arduous endeavor, depleting the resources of the flesh and annihilating the majority of what once sustained the soul.

Within the sanctuary of this loving place, those who are empty, drained, without hope, arrive. These survivors bring with them memories, yearnings, unfulfilled desires for futures that can never be. Somehow, despite the loss and the emptiness that have brought them here, a miracle occurs. In sharing these reminiscences, in reaching out to others to give comfort and aid, the very things they so desire for themselves, all begin to heal, all are made more whole. A nourishment of the parched and hungry spirit has begun.

We who have lost loved ones to suicide have found nurture here in the Circle. We have created together an environment of sustaining comfort and surpassing kindness. This is a place where our burdens are lifted, our minds eased of the panic and turmoil, the nightmares and distress that assail us in our grief. Here we are fed from within, our emptiness briefly filled by the flickering light of memory, like a hearth fire burning.

As time passes, and those memories begin to take flesh and bring unexpected joy, we share more freely, delve more deeply, often arriving together at the communal feast of mind and heart. In that wondrous aura of nostalgia, where candle light flickers, or sun beams stream from perfect summer skies, we spread our own tableaus of memory like a pic- nic cloth, creating a feast of
enduring warmth and eternal love.

In these pages you will find recipes from the unblemished innocence of days now passed. The simple yet wholesome foods that once nourished beloved bodies, now sustaining and fortifying treasured memories as they feed our bodies and souls. Please, share with us this journey of healing as we prepare a feast from our hearts.