I bought them for a meditation class. I was doing the five senses meditation and for the touch meditation, I brought a bowl of lentils. No one really wanted to stick their hands into a bag of lentils during the meditation, so I chose that one. I blame it all on Amelie. After seeing her derive such pleasure from dipping her hands into sacks of beans, I had to follow suit.

Monday night, I brought down the big black glass bowl that my grandmother had given me so long ago. I have a box of antique hobnail and carnival glass that was packed perfectly during our last move, but this bowl didn’t fit in that box. It ended up being brought by hand from West Jordan to Sugarhouse. It was one of the first items to be placed on the mantel.

It was empty when we moved, but after the meditation class, I added the lentils. I thought that I would want to meditate with them all the time because I had such a good experience in the class. When I brought the bowl down from the mantel on Monday, the bowl and lentils were dusty with neglect.

Once again, I felt their slick skins slide past my fingers, yet somehow support them. I rested my hands into the cold lentils. I grabbed handfuls of them. I felt them individually. Each small saucer was slippery and cool. My fifteen minute meditation slid as easily as the legumes around my fingers.

Welcome back, Lar. I haven’t truly meditated for so long. I felt such a relief to get back into the groove of things. This meditation class started as something nice to do for a friend, but it has truly helped me relax and enjoy life. Who else can say that they have truly enjoyed the feeling of lentils between their fingers? Ok, Amelie can, but who else?