and the
ENERGY of FOOD
I have been thinking long and hard about this topic, and waited to find the right time to open this discussion with you all. Now, I find, might be the right time, so here it comes:
It is a long tradition, within all religions, and also among people with no religious belief as such, to say Grace before a meal.
We prepare the food, put it on the table, sit around, have a quiet moment, put our hands together, and pray/sing/chant a gratitude for being able to eat, and drink, for us to survive.
That gratitude goes to whoever in the universe helped us, but for people, like us, who care deeply about our planet and our environment, we also thank Nature for every little bit we put into our mouth.
We do not want to take more, than what we need, and we are concerned about finding the right balance between need and greed.
September is a month of, hopefully, bountiful harvesting, and we must be skilled and knowledgeable about how to preserve our harvest for the winter.
The best ways are
- store fruit in a cool dry place
- freeze berries
- dry herbs and plants
- dry vegetables
- dry grains
- preserve produce via quick cooking (not raw) to make jam, marmalade, juice
In these ways, we can make sure, we and our family have food for many months. As Global Warming and Climate Change come closer by the day to play havoc on our food supply, I strongly urge you to take up some of these practises!
In the olden days, we followed the rhythms of Nature; let me take grains as an example. We harvested in August/September, dried the grains, stored them, milled them when we wanted to make bread; by March/April we took the last grains for sowing and in that way the cycle started all over again. If possible, I encourage you to purchase a non-electric grain mill to be able to produce your own flour, when needed.
The supply chain of food, which for us vegan, does not include any form of animal protein, is by far the compassionate diet; it saves resources: there is no such thing as a meat-eating environmentalist; it is also the healthiest for us to eat and digest.
Saving us from the antibiotics, pesticides and the adrenalines from the raising and slaughtering of living, sentient beings take us a long way to protect us from negative energy in our food.
Not to mention the very heavy negative karma, which derives from having just the smallest part of contributing to murdering another living, sentient being; for every life we take, and participate in taking, we ourselves shall be held accountable. Every. Single. One!
Not to mention the very heavy negative karma, which derives from having just the smallest part of contributing to murdering another living, sentient being; for every life we take, and participate in taking, we ourselves shall be held accountable. Every. Single. One!
Yes, my dear vegan friends: food has energy. Whatever food it is, there is energy in food, and not just the physical compounds, being digested by our physical organs.
There is mental energy as well. Everything that happens to our food, from the seed being planted, the exposure to the elements, the growing, harvesting, transport, packing, selling...the whole chain until we grab a bunch of radishes, pay for them, take them home, prepare and eat them: every single step of the way, energy goes into the food.
Unless we grow our own food, which is the best way of living by all measures, there is no way for us to know, what happened to our food during prior handling.
This is where the Grace comes in: a lot of us are saying prayers to cleanse the food of any negative energy, which might be in there, before it came to us.
Talking about need and greed, I wonder, why people go out to eat?
I understand the wish to gather the family around a meal, and relieve the Mother of her endless kitchen duties, which is sweet and very considerate and supportive of the husband: we must applaud that; absolutely!
However, I much prefer, the husband and the rest of the family stay home, have a social get-together and make meals there, while the Mother can go do some fitness, have a nice aromatherapy bath or just sit quietly with a book, drinking her tea.
When you minimize the number of people handling the food, you minimize the risk of negative energy into, what you are eating.
At the same time, you probably spend less money, have a social activity together and can be proud of, what you did.
If anything should be on the to-do list for vegan families, apart from venturing to rescue and foster all kinds of animals, especially farm animals, it is to learn how to prepare your food at home.
If you are lucky, you might even have a garden, from where you can pick the fresh produce or a lager, where it has been properly stored for the winter.
Wish you the best!
