The World on your Plate

How much of our lives do we spend living on autopilot?

Way too much if you ask me.

Now, this isn't a "let's shame ourselves about how bad and distracted modern-day society is and dwell on how much that sucks" kind of conversation.

Sure, we're more distracted and stimulated than we used to be, and yes we can lose out on a lot of joy and wonder if we continue to operate from that unaware place.

But instead of feeling like crap about it, we can use this awareness to make tiny changes that can have a not so tiny influence on how much beauty we can connect to in our lives.
(Remember the injections we talked about last time?)

One place where we can inject some of that profound, nourishing quality of awareness is eating.

I have to credit Thich Nhat Hanh for writing about this idea and blowing my mind:
"Looking deeply into the vegetables, we see sunshine is inside them, a cloud is inside, the earth is inside, and a lot of hard, loving work is also there in the food before us."


Now if that's a little too fluffy for you, allow me to simplify it in more concrete terms:

We look at food and give it a label to simplify the process ("I'm eating french fries").

We might take it a little further and acknowledge that we're eating a potato.

That's great. It's simple, it's efficient. You get your dose of happiness by eating something you enjoy and move on.


But there's an opportunity to experience a much deeper connection to the wondrous, miraculous ways in which the world operates.

The potato the fries are made of exists because of the water and sunshine that enabled it to grow.

It may have been watered by the rain that poured down on that particular spot because the wind blew a certain cloud exactly there so it could water that specific potato.

A human being made the effort to harvest that potato so it can be eaten.

The oil it was cooked in may have come from an olive tree that required it's own bunch of natural processes to grow.

And the salt sprinkled over the fries may have come from the sea.

And someone actually made the effort to cook all of that into something that can be eaten.

And it landed on your plate.
You.

All of these natural processes took place so that food can make it onto your plate specifically.

So, you see, if we pay attention, we get to marvel at the synergy of an entire universe operating harmoniously to support you in even the most seemingly mundane details.

Let that remind you that the Creator of this universe is supporting and taking care of you.

That everything is unfolding according to a greater plan and that you are taken care of.