Wednesday Dec 11, 2024
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“Living creatures are nourished by food, and food is nourished by rain; rain itself is the water of life, which comes from selfless worship and service.”
We have been conditioned to look to food for some kind of deeper fulfilment. Food can entertain us, we are told. It is exciting, romantic, adventurous, exotic. Vast sums of money are spent trying to get us to buy a certain brand of potato chip or to prefer one brand of frozen pizza over another. In the midst of this carnival atmosphere, it is easy to forget that the real purpose of food is to nourish our bodies.
Eating together with those we love, eating nutritious food that has been prepared with love – this can nourish our inner needs, as well as our bodies. Taking time at meals to talk to each other and enjoy the meal as a shared sacrament is rare today. People are so busy that even meals have become something to be got through as quickly as possible. We need to slow down, take the time to prepare nutritious meals and rearrange our schedules so that we can be together.
(From ‘Words To Live By’ by Eknath Easwaran, founder of the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, copyright 2005; reprinted by permission of Nilgiri Press, P.O. Box 256, Tomales, Ca 94971, www.bmcm.org.)