Eating with reverence means that when we take the time to prepare a meal that satisfies all of the senses and slow down to experience it, we are engaging in an ancient ritual of thankfulness and reverence. Reverence is to act with ‘veneration’ or deepest respect.
By eating with respect for the food we are nourishing our bodies with and preparing and eating in an atmosphere that supports this, we can increase the absorption of the nutrients in our food and enhance the enjoyment that it gives us.
Saying a simple thank you, as in a blessing before your meal, will set the intent of this gratitude and respect for your food. If you’ve taken the time to prepare a meal that is nutritionally dense and satisfies the needs of your body, then it will be easy to truly feel it. It doesn’t have to be religious unless you want it to be. A simple thank you to the life that contributed to your meal is enough. Make it your own.
"Eating is a sacrament. The grace we say clears our hearts and guides the children
and welcomes the guest, all at the same time. We look at eggs, apples and stew.
They are evidence of plentitude, excess, a great reproductive exuberance.
Millions of grains of grass seed that will become rice or flour, millions of codfish fry that
will never, and must never, grow to maturity. Innumerable little seeds are
sacrifices to the foodchain. A parsnip in the group is a marvel of living chemistry, making
sugars and flavors from earth, air, water. And if we do eat meat it is the life,
the bounce, the swish, of a great alert being with keen ears, and lovely eyes
with foursquare feet and a huge beating heart that we eat. Let us not deceive ourselves."
~GARY SNYDER, from
The Practice of the Wild
By eating with respect for the food we are nourishing our bodies with and preparing and eating in an atmosphere that supports this, we can increase the absorption of the nutrients in our food and enhance the enjoyment that it gives us.
Saying a simple thank you, as in a blessing before your meal, will set the intent of this gratitude and respect for your food. If you’ve taken the time to prepare a meal that is nutritionally dense and satisfies the needs of your body, then it will be easy to truly feel it. It doesn’t have to be religious unless you want it to be. A simple thank you to the life that contributed to your meal is enough. Make it your own.
"Eating is a sacrament. The grace we say clears our hearts and guides the children
and welcomes the guest, all at the same time. We look at eggs, apples and stew.
They are evidence of plentitude, excess, a great reproductive exuberance.
Millions of grains of grass seed that will become rice or flour, millions of codfish fry that
will never, and must never, grow to maturity. Innumerable little seeds are
sacrifices to the foodchain. A parsnip in the group is a marvel of living chemistry, making
sugars and flavors from earth, air, water. And if we do eat meat it is the life,
the bounce, the swish, of a great alert being with keen ears, and lovely eyes
with foursquare feet and a huge beating heart that we eat. Let us not deceive ourselves."
~GARY SNYDER, from
The Practice of the Wild
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