I, Too, Am Food

I, too, am food. The depth of this reality has been evolving in me since last summer, when two things coincided. First, I listened to a 1973 recording of Mr. Bennett giving the exercise of trying to be present to the first bite of food. Second, I was introduced to a practice of cupping my hands around my dish to contemplate the food I was about to eat.

The practice of being present to the first bite has grown over the months. From an act of remembering to an act of appreciating, to a subtle energetic exchange. Remembering is hard enough. I would remember before picking up my fork and forget by the time it reached my mouth. Or I would remember two or three bites in. Sometimes I would realize I had not remembered at all. The act of cupping my hands around the plate or bowl went a long way towards slowing things down enough to remember.

Sitting in front of a meal with my hands cupping the plate, I began to look at each life-form that was before me. Easy to feel something for a fish, or bird, or animal that had given its life so that I could live. How about a lettuce, a scallion, a mushroom, a nut? Green beans or broccoli florets, potatoes, or rice? Each one a life-form, each one had been alive, growing, holding an energy. Sometimes the energy of these plant or animal beings was still evident on the plate before me.

I Am Food

I noticed the vibrancy of fresh greens on my plate. That vibrancy carries a juice—a healthy energy which feeds my soul as well as my body. One day, contemplating the meal before me, I realized that I am food too! The energy of my being goes to feed something when I die. It can even feed something now, before I die. It came home to me that my life energy needs to be as juicy and nourishing a meal as I can grow it.

As I see the life in the food before me, I see something sacred—a living force that is released into the world. I sense that I am the same—a living force that is like that which I gaze upon. My seeing opens, showing me a vibrant green, oscillating vision, and that it is this—organic life—that is at the root of what our planet is about. And I, too, am sustenance which grows and gives its energy in sacrifice to the continuation of life. I am on the plate. My work is to be as juicy a tidbit as I can be, now and at my end.