I was so inspired by today’s conversation with Kristin Haakenson and Dr. Foley (author of Drinking with the Saints) that I started up a new batch of naturally-fermented mead. Lent seems like such a fitting time to watch the seemingly lifeless water and honey transform into a living, bubbling drink. Death to life, water to wine, right on my countertop. And forty days just happens to be the perfect amount of time for a sweet, mildly alcoholic, bubbly, and delicious mead. Kristin made a comment in today’s conversation about how we may not always get a “quiet time” each day, but the time we spend in the kitchen (and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen) can be devotional, whether it’s quiet or not. So one of my spiritual practices this Lenten season is going to be tending to my mead. Maybe a homebrew is a strange spiritual practice. But then again, centuries of monastic tradition would beg to differ.