When I was young I occasionally said a grace before eating, especially in gatherings, though not often by myself. When I thought about my food and all the people and other beings involved in producing it, getting it to my kitchen and table, I was appreciative, but it was not a habit.
As I learned about energy and blessings over the years I set intentions of gratitude and blessing for my food more regularly. More on the blessing side, setting a good energy for myself, than specifically gratitude, though both are properly involved. It still wasn’t really a habit and I can’t say I felt or noticed much, as I did it.
A decade ago I had a spontaneous experience which opened my heart and gifted me with an afternoon of bliss. I thought at the time it was strange that it occurred in my kitchen, though I never really put it together with what came next. The following day as I sat down to eat I called in a blessing for my food and to my surprise I felt energy passing through the space between my hands and landing on the plate in front of me.
After that day I began to really make a habit of blessing my food. Sometimes I would say something special, but mostly just invite Spirit to set the vibration in a good way for me, sometimes noticing what showed up. That I could do this was becoming real for me, and becoming real I paid more attention to it.
In gatherings I would speak from my heart gratitude for the fellowship, but gratitude for the food itself was still mostly conceptual.
This year my partner has been encouraging me to feel into my body as I eat. I feel my body’s desire for food, though sometimes is not really about food, but simply emotional energy that is calling for attention. As I eat I feel into how my body responds, coming to know the feeling of satisfaction, gratitude on a physical and emotional level.
Now gratitude is also becoming real for me. Not just a concept that makes sense, or a feeling that is pleasurable when something good happens, but a state of being that is alive in me and intimately related to being able to receive what life has to offer me.
Recently this came around again. As my partner was encouraging me to pay attention more deeply, I felt the openness of my body as it received food and drink, felt the warmth of nourishment spreading through my belly. I realized how many layers there are to my unconsciousness. Its not enough to think about gratitude a little at the beginning of a meal, but there is a great power in following that awareness through the whole meal.
Feeling your body respond to what its eating, feeling desire relaxing into satisfaction and gratitude, is a model for how we receive from the universe in general. Paying attention we can cultivate a grateful state of being. Deepening into a new level of understanding, we can apply this state to life, finding the inner emotional stance that welcomes all things that nurture us, saying yes to what is possible rather than taking it for granted.
So now I say grace for all my meals, combining gratitude with a blessing. Setting the vibration of the food and feeling into open receptivity, being aware of how the universe is supporting me in this way, inviting all forms of nourishment into my life. What a wonderful chance to deepen into Spirit every day.
(© 5/2015)
