Our eight day sojourn to the arctic is over. Yesterday morning we woke up and all the snow and ice were gone. Just a few dying wisps of snow remained in the shadows, and a few remaining shards of grand icebergs wept themselves away in the bright sun.

Day lily shoots stayed green, waiting for enough warm sunshine to send their shoots high into the spring air … next month perhaps? Onion shoots and kale greens, the week plus long freeze didn’t damage them at all.

Hazel and her sisters are back out in the garden, greeting me when I come outside from making tofu, bearing gifts of okara for them. Okara are the mashed soybean solids that are left over when you make tofu. Chickens will mob you if they see you carrying okara, just warning you if have chickens and decide to make tofu one day. Though, think hard about it, because if you do it once, they will expect it often, and will look funny at you when you visit them empty handed.

When I think about it, okara resembles the manna from heaven I heard about as a child. Maybe Yahweh was making tofu up there and tossed his okara down for the sojourners in the desert who were complaining about not having enough to eat. I think a lot of believers are in for a big surprise when they walk through the pearly white gates and find out that all Yahweh makes is tofu. If you want to be happy in heaven, eat tofu every day.