When you are birthing babies some of the books tell you to think of all the other women in the world who are also in labor and to think of yourself as connected to them and working with them as you do the work of circling this baby down and moving him through the deep center of your body and out into the light. The think of yourself as part of this mighty chain of women, all grunting and groaning and straining with the work of life and it’s euphoric. And you are not alone. You can trust that you will be able to do this because so many women before and now are doing it with you.
I’m standing in my kitchen mixing flour and sugar and raisins. I tell the Boy that my whole life my mom made hot cross buns, and my grandma. There were always buns on Easter. I am making them at the last minute of course, because we are out of cereal and, oh right, it’s Good Friday. That’s when hot cross buns are eaten.
Suddenly, as I am telling him of my mother, and my father’s mother, I feel it, that connection. My feet grow down into the tile of the floor and my soul spreads wide to realize how many women, in how many places are this day standing in their kitchens making buns to remember.
I know that higher, nobler things are meant to unify us. This sense that people the world over are praying together, the joining to celebrate the life and resurrection. But not surprisingly, for this woman, the sense of oneness comes with a simple recipe and kneading the dough in my hands, laboring together with my mother, and my grandmother and my sisters everywhere.
Here is the fast, single rise recipe that I invented this morning to feed my people.
Quick and Tasty Hot Cross Buns