When shall we live, if not now?

First off, let me apologize for my undue absence from the blog. I have been sucked in to the tornado of everyday life and tossed around in the wind tunnel of lost time. I have been cooking however, and writing, and researching, so I will soon culminate these efforts in to a series of brilliant blog posts.
For now, however, I would like to share with you a quote from M.F.K Fisher's The Art of Eating (thank you Leah!!). It is filled with pearls of food related wisdom and so much more, I highly encourage you all to give it a read some time. This passage reminds me so much of the many loving meals I have relished with close friends and family, from Moneglia to Boerne.
From the Chapter "Meals for Me":

Dining partners, regardless of gender, social standing or the years they've lived, should be chosen for their ability to eat and drink with the right mixture of abandon and restraint. They should enjoy food, and look upon its preparation and its degustation as one of the human arts. They should relish the accompanying drinks, whether they be ale from a bottle on a hillside or the ripe bouquet of a Chambertin 1919 in a great crystal globe on finest damask.

And above all, friends should possess the rare gift of sitting. They should be able, no eager, to sit for hours--three, four, six--over a meal of soup and wine and cheese, as well as one of 20 fabulous courses.

Then with good friends of such attributes, and good food on the board, and good wine in the pitcher, we may well ask, When shall we live if not now?