Eating as a Spiritual Practice

When I eat I connect with creation in an intimate way. It has become important to me to know where my food comes from, how it was grown, transported, processed and how producing it might have affected other life. Is it local? Is it in season? Does eating it cause harm to my body, the human community, or any of my fellow inhabitants of Earth? These questions slow me down. I also ask myself if I am really hungry especially if it is between meals or I find myself thinking about grazing through the kitchen. To stop and think before I eat has made eating a spiritual practice. There is not only the satisfying of bodily hungry, there is the deep connection to all that is. I was at the Earth Care Summit put on by Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon last month and one of the speakers made the comment that

We are only temporarily not soil.

That comment speaks to me and my own journey of faith. I remember a time when I thought that soil made vegetables dirty. I no longer think that and I no longer get excited by a little soil on my lettuce or celery. After all that soil is a remnant of the nourishing substance that allows the vegetables to grow. In the soil are the remains of other beings, plants and creatures that once lived and now assist after their death by nourishing seedlings that feed another generation. It is really quite profound. Soon it will be Lent and on Ash Wednesday when I hear, "Remember you are dust and to dust you will return", I will think, "Remember you are of the Earth and to the Earth you will return" because I believe that would be closer to the original meaning of the phrase

dust to dust

. (Dust makes me think of billowing dust bunnies under the bed!) The bodies we live in are of the stuff of the Earth. From the Earth comes the food that nourishes us. The Earth is where our bodies find a final resting place. This thought of the final resting place has led me to desire a green burial at death. At one time I believed that cremation was a better choice for the Earth but after doing some research I realized that is not true. Conventional burial - in a casket with cement grave liner - is anything but green or natural, but using fossil fuels to burn a body puts all sorts of noxious fumes into the air and does not return carbon to the ground... the carbon of the body. So natural burial is now my desire. There are several places near my home where this can happen. Some use biodegradable caskets while others lower the body to the ground in a shroud. There are places that make burial shrouds or a family can provide their own natural fiber blanket wrap. I like the idea of being wrapped and placed directly in the Earth. The idea of a casket with nails or locks always gave me nightmares as did cremation which I know is crazy, but somehow being placed in the Earth is comforting. I know I jumped pretty quickly from eating to dying but the two are closely connected. We eat to live and when we stop we die. How we eat determines the health of our bodies and contributes to the quality of our lives. The more spiritually connected to how I eat the more aware of connections I have become. Years ago I became a vegetarian after discovering how meat eating in the wealthy countries created famine in the poorer countries. One author suggested that if every person in the wealthy nations would give up eating meat just two days a week it would have a large impact on the poorer nations. So I gave up meat for myself and two+ others who would not do so though I still ate fish and diary products. I called myself a political vegetarian. Then when my youngest daughter became a vegan after learning about animal cruelty, I identified with that aspect - although as I have said before, I did not stop eating dairy because somehow I thought that industry was not so bad. (Little did I know.) After some time when I became involved in environmental issues I also discovered that animal farms were terribly hard on the land and water supplies. So I had an added reason for being vegetarian. About the same time, I stopped eating fish because of the effect that overfishing was having on the ocean. After the Tsunami and the Fukishima nuclear disaster I heard a talk by Helen Caldicott from the Physicians for Social Responsibility and part of the message called into question the safety of Pacific Coast fish. Again, there was that connection between food supply and all that happens. Now I have come to the conviction that eating foods that come from animal agriculture contributes more to global climate change than driving a car. And at the same time my fundamental aversion to killing anything has risen to the surface of my soul where it should have been all along. How could I eat animals or eat products that contribute to the abuse and death of animals when I go to great lengths to save and release a spider or fly or wasp that gets trapped inside a building? Some advocates for animals say that to participate in the animal agricultural industry by consuming its products requires a person to deny the innate human desire to live with compassion toward all other life. I believe that is true. I am working on compassionate living.