by Krysta Gibson

Eating is an area of great concern for many people. Some fear food because they believe it will make them fat. Others find food and eating to be a time-waster. And others find food to be a delightful experience and pride themselves on being good cooks and conscious eaters. 

There are various schools of thought about eating. Some people are vegetarian, others are vegan, while others eat anything and everything. I don’t think there is any one right answer because we are all here with different learning agendas. There is, however, a way we can all agree on.

Let’s bless our food when buying it, preparing it, and when consuming it. Let’s bless the people who made it possible for us to eat the food.

When I’m eating something, I like to think of all the people and beings who were involved in that bite of food getting to me. Let’s look at a piece of bread.

Someone grew the wheat and the other products in the bread. The sun, air, water, and soil joined together and allowed the wheat, yeast, milk, eggs, salt and whatever other ingredients are in that particular piece of bread to be made. It was baked in an oven. Someone had to make the oven. Someone had to design the recipe. Once it was baked, someone sliced it, packaged it, got it on a truck to get it to the store where I bought it. 

Someone built and manages the store where I shop. There is a clerk who put it on the shelf for me. Another checks out my groceries when I buy the bread. And on and on it goes. Sometimes when I sit down and look at food and I realize all the people who were involved in its preparation, I am amazed. I feel like I am connected to an enormous group of people who cared about me enough to do all the things it took to get that food to me.

Eat consciously. Whatever you choose to eat and drink, do it with awareness. Before you eat, take a few seconds to say thank you to everyone who was involved in making the food and in getting it to you. Some people like to hold their hands over their food before eating and asking that the food be cleared and blessed so that it will provide the best nutrition possible for their body. If you don’t want to be obvious in what you are doing, you don’t have to use your hands to bless the food. You can bless it with your eyes and mind.

If you eat meat and you don’t know the source of the animals, it is possible that you are eating animals who had a less than comfortable life before they ended up on your plate. It is possible you could ingest this unhappy energy. Without getting into the politics of these food sources, what I would like to suggest is that you can consciously assist in the assimilation and transmutation of the negativity these beings suffered.

Bless the food and make the conscious statement that as this material is processed in your body, it is being transformed into the pure energy of love and that the animal is being blessed and healed by this love.

Whenever and however you can, do work to support farms and ranches that are committed to raising animals with proper love and care so that eventually the cruelty toward these creatures is stopped.

Whether or not animals should be raised to be consumed is a discussion for another time and is beyond the scope of this article. If you are vegetarian or vegan, I support your choice as I do that of people who choose to eat meat and fish.