“They [children of the prison camp] learned to be hungry, that hunger was the natural condition of life. They learned that a meal was a big event and eggs better than gold, a piece of rotting fish was a luxury, a banana was a treasure. And that all of these articles were contraband, and only to be spoken of in whispers.”
There are a few books that always draw me back to them. Three Came Home, by Agnes Newton Keith is one of them. Written straight out of a Japanese internment camp during World War 2, it chronicles the incredible journey of a family of three surviving a three year stint in the camp. Agnes and Harry’s child George was only two when they first were placed in the camp. As I read, once again, about the extraordinary lengths that this mother went through to get food for her growing child, I was filled with appreciation for all that I have. I’ve been given so much. Raising a growing child in circumstances of starvation, brutality, and a prison like atmosphere is an almost unbearable thought. And it felt unbearable to them too, but they made it through one day at a time.
And Agnes fed her George one egg at a time as she bartered and played the “black market” for eggs and other important food items. The food in the camp wouldn’t grow a child or keep an adult alive for long, so in order to survive they would sell sheets, clothes, and other items over the back fence in the middle of the night in exchange for food. It was a dangerous game with high consequences if caught. But when your child’s well being is on the line, a mother’s love goes to extraordinary lengths. She even spent up to $20 dollars one time for a single egg! (And we thought our organic, pastured eggs were expensive!).
What an important reminder to me to be thankful.
I am very thankful that I don’t have to risk my life to get food for my child. All I have to do is put some thought and time into it. I am thankful that we’ve always had plenty to eat, even on a more limited budget. And what a good reminder to me to not complain about the high cost of food, especially good food. I am just grateful I don’t have to sell my clothes over my back fence to buy it!
It can be easy for those of us into health food to get wrapped up in talking about different healing diets, and what the best “diet” is for best health, but we also need to be reminded that we are just plain lucky to have plenty of food! A mother’s love will go to extraordinary lengths of her children, and trying to feed a child the best possible “growing up” diet she can is just one example of that love. But sometimes mothers can also forget to be grateful for what we have as we are too busy worrying and bustling about. So I was thankful for this book as it reminded me of all that I have. Poverty and starvation plague people around the world, and for them eggs may be better than gold too.
May my morning eggs be a reminder to me of all that we have and enjoy and may my prayers be filled with true thankfulness.
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That was beautiful, and well said. Thank you for the reminder.
This made me tear up; my Jewish father was born into a camp in Poland at the end of the war. As you can imagine, luxuries like eggs did not exist. When the war ended he was moved to an American-run displacement camp in Austria, where the food was better but anything other than gruel, bread, or bones was hard to come by. His family was still poor for many years after they foudn refuge in Canada, since they literally had nothing but the clothes on their back.
Growing up I remember my father couldn’t stand the thought of wasting any food at all, so he ate all of his children’s leftovers at meals. Even though we were well-off, we never let food spoil. And eggs may as well have been gilded, because they were included at every holiday and special treat (my father was especially fond of making egg custards for me when I was sick). I’m grateful to know the value of food today, even if it means cringing when I see people throwing out their left-overs or letting food go bad. 🙂
{tearing up} Lovely post…I am thankful everyday as I eat my pastured egg that I have a women who is willing to share generously with me at a fair price. I love in the OC….you know, the one you see on the TV show. It took me about a year to find someone to buy eggs from. Thank you Laura.
Jana
Thank you for putting things back into perspective for me – I constantly worry if I am doing enough to feed my family healthy food. Great post.
Whoa. This was an incredible post, and one I will not soon forget. I am SO thankful for the few hens that I have and for the gifts they give me every day.
I think I will always see them in a different light after today.
Cindy
Thank you for sharing about this book. I’ll have to look for it at the library. One of our librarians is from Poland, and has shared with me a little of her own experience. She has expressed her outrage at how much food gets wasted in this country. I also have a brother-in-law, one of four, who grew up in a single parent household. His mother always added water to the milk or juice. Nothing was wasted.
We have five kids, and we stress not wasting food. We’re not militant, and we know the little ones don’t always understand. But, there are times I have scooped the half-eaten apple out of the compost bin (at least they put it in there, and not the trash), rinsed it off, and saved it in the fridge to make into something else. We’re not perfect, but we try really hard not to let anything go to waste.
Thank you! With the coming of winter I have been looking over my pantry stores and even fretting over the things that are not stocked yet. A big deal when you are having your first winter outside of Southern California in 11 years, but not something to fret over.
A welcome perspective check, thank you.
every day when i collect the eggs from my beloved chickens i thank them for their beautiful eggs and it never ceases to amaze me what a gift the simple egg is…..friends think i am a bit crazy…..but i thank my chickens anyway….it makes me happy to do so……lol
Lovely thoughts that I will share with my children. Eggs will never be the same. Thanks for sharing such a beautiful reminder.
Great post … we just moved from the city, where we had ample supply of healthy foods like raw milk and farm fresh eggs and fresh vegies, to the country, where, surprisingly, I am having a terrible time finding any of these things. I have 3 children and another on the way. I find I am constantly thinking about food, rationing it out, and seeking out sources. It has been a big reminder that God will supply all of our needs and that no matter what God is in control and He will not let us starve. In fact, he will keep us all nourished, including this baby in my womb. Just today we were totally out of milk and I really felt hopeless. I had no prospects for any. Then out of the blue, the phone rang, and a man told me he had two gallons for us! It does remind me to never take these valuables for granted, as well as to trust in God who really does supply all things. It is certainly not because of any thing we do ourselves.
Nicely worded and so true. I’m reading A Thousand Splendid Suns which also makes me appreciate the freedoms and abundances that we do have.
Jana,
How fortunate you are! I live in OC too, and I would love to have a source for pastured eggs like you do. Lucky!
Thank you for this post. You are so good to remind us to pause and reflect on the blessings in our life. Living in a foreign country gives me a slightly different perspective because the people here really don’t let much go to waste. If there are leftovers, they are made into a different meal. The recycling program here includes bins for organic waste, glass, paper and plastics/metals. All of it is collected and put to use. Composting and gardens are the norm here, even if all you have is a tiny balcony with a few tomato and pepper plants. Americans are learning, albeit slowly, and it is my hope that every hamlet, village, town and city will be able to lower our predilection for overconsumption and mass consumerism. I would feel very blessed if I knew that there was no child going hungry in our country.
What a nice post! I always think about how lucky I am to be able to provide my family with fresh, pastured farm eggs every other week when I go pick them up from my egg buying club. And at a reasonable price to boot!
This was a great post. I think it’s easy for us all to get caught up in the “bad” things in our life and we often need a reminder about the good things. I am constantly reminded that it could always be worse and I am thankful that I have a husband who loves me, a warm home, clothes on my back and food on the table!
That is a beautiful post! And I agree with Laura on her thoughts. Thank God we have food to go around and then some! Even when we’ve really struggled it’s not like we’ve ever had a circumstance when something like eggs couldn’t be had, if nothing else.
Thanks for this wonderful post! You put “things” into great prospective!
Lord bless you.
Amen! Too much elitism in the real food blogging world. Thanks for the gentle reminder and all the good work you do.
Ouchie! I’m going to be less grumpy about paying $3.75/doz for the pastured eggs I’ll be picking up tomorrow from my food co-op.
Beautiful reminder. 🙂
“A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” gives the same importance on food – I could feel him sucking all the juices out of the little fish bones, and caringly storing a dry crust of bread to wipe the soup bowl with.
Thank you for the reminder to be thankful for the abundance we live in, even though sometimes it doesn’t feel so abundant.
So enjoyed this post! Puts into perspective how rich we have it now! May we never become so comfortable that we aren’t truly thankful! God has truly blessed us! Thankyou!
as we near the one world order ,we can see how the recession, the shortade of food , fighting around the world, genacide and more, we need to look up, for the sky will burst open soon to let our Lord in, to take us with him. your story was heart wrenching. this lets me see how vulnerable we are and to just live and enjoy this life one day at a time. love and protect our children. may GOD bless you and allthe children around the world and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. shalom , amen.