A prayer

With all the different problematic and confusion on the food industry more so in the nutritional spectrum.  I find we have to recognize this a divergent problem, given every body seems to take sides on what makes sense to them, although sad to say it is mainly what has been though through mass media and as generations pass less and less our common sense, our biological constitution, valid non-bias scientific information and I think most important our elders whom have provided us with tools based on rich ancestral traditions.  Given this evident divergent problem playing us, I attempt to make a truce between all sides, as the solution to any divergent problem in the words of the late E.F Schumacher is ¨transcendence¨ through the power of reverence and appreciation, wrapped in the science of prayer.  I have a strong believe on the idea of prayer being a science; firstly because we have a wrong idea of what science is, second we create a dogmatic believe that science and ¨spirituality¨ are direct opposites.  Yet science is not but the empirical pursuit of knowledge and prayer was in the past the pursuit of ¨enlightenment¨ or ¨a direction¨.  In contrast to what it has defined to be presently, nothing more than a petition.

Regardless of your believes or lack of them, I make a case for and attitude of gratitude something we can all share regardless of your convictions.   You don´t have to practice it or even care for it, though I believe the lack of reverence and appreciation has led us to a denaturalized state, fundamental to the detrimental state as a race, society and planet we are presently facing.  Michael Pollan, a man whom I have become a great admirator of his work and think is a brilliant as a man can be with the simple, effective, common sense nature which to me characterizes a true genius, recently wrote a book on 64 food rules called naturally food rules: An eater´s manual and makes complete sense from any angle you look at it.  Yet I believe for what ever reason he might only know a vital aspect of eating was omitted, this being the science of prayer before eating. Sally Fallon another person I highly admire, the current front person at the Weston Price foundation, has been steadfast in her manifestation of how our ancestors lived and thrived on variety of diets, as primarily observed and implemented by the founder who´s names the foundation carries, Dr. Weston Price.  Traditional eating habits centered around what most alternative experts in the field of nutrition come to define today as ¨local-vorism¨, ¨organic agriculture¨, etc.  Yet today in rural non-western communities these practices have been and to a large extend are still practiced even today.  These have been consider to be the ideal eating and living conditions where humanity regardless of gender, age or ethnicity can thrive to the full extend.  One aspect to consider is the fact that to these people the process of eating takes on a whole different realm of reality in contrast to ours.  For starters they grow their own food or in the case of animals tend to them, they harvest their own food and naturally prepare and serve these same foods, that is a far cry from our western, industrialized reality which in the best case scenario we buy from a farmers market, hop in our cars, and prep them at home in our automated kitchens.  What I try to express here is not demonizing of the evolution and progress of the western world, or picture traditional communities as romantic nature-lovers who have all the answers, though there is much we can learn from them, but rather an attempt for all of us to meditate on these two realities, as an example if our favorite veggies or fruit is not found at our local supermarket or farmers market we simply get back in our cars and go to the next closest one, to non-western communities they simply look for other food sources or starve. So understanding these realities we can comprehend better, there are too many variables and factors which are uncontrollable that can lead to a successful harvest or not, so living in this reality changes eating to be consider a true blessing and nothing less than true gratitude is to be offered in return.  I firmly believe gratefulness is the first step to consciousness, I too believe when eating with gratefulness you change not only your mental state towards food but also this translates to digesting it better as well.  Having said this I would like to share the following simple prayer or food for thought, give it what ever presentation you choose, better yet come up with your own and share it if you please.  This particular ¨prayer¨ is taken from THE PROPHET by Khalid Gibran

Then an old man a keeper of an inn asked: Talk to us about Eating and Drinking

And he said:

Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth

and like an air plant be sustained by light

But since you must kill to eat, and rob the new born of his mother milk

to quench your thirst, let then be an act of worship.

And let your board stand on altar, on which the pure and the innocent

Of forest and plain are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent in man.

WHEN you kill a beast say to him in your heart:

¨By the same power that slays you, I too am slain; and I too shall be consumed.

For the law which delivers you in to my hands shall deliver me in to a mightier hand.

Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap which feeds the tree of heaven.¨

AND when you crush and apple with your teeth say to it in your heart,

¨Your seed shall live in my body.

And the buds of your to-morrow shall blossom in my heart,

And your fragrance shall be my breath,

And together we shall rejoice through all of the seasons.¨

AND in the autumn, when you gather the grapes of your vineyards

for the winepress, say in your heart:

¨I too am a vineyard, and my fruit shall be gathered for the winepress.

And like new wine I shall be kept in eternal vessels.¨

And in the winter, when you draw the wine, let there be in your heart a song for each cup;

And let there be in your song a remembrance for the autumn days, and for the vineyard, and for the winepress.

I would like to close this article with the following words

¨GRATITUTE IS THE MEMORY OF THE HEART¨

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