Savour

I have been a vegetarian for most of my adult life. It has not always been easy. The cravings for meat are not something that someone who grew up as a carnivore can easily manage. It shouldn’t be too difficult for anyone to empathize with how much discipline it takes to stay the course when confronted with the aromas of BBQ season. It was not until I had applied mindful eating that the effort required to stay a vegetarian become effortless.

Mindful eating is a practice that changes the way you look at food and it changes the way you approach life. When I eat an apple I can feel the sun that nurtured it, the rain the nourished it, the farmer who harvested it, the trucker who transported it, and the grocer who sold it to me. It is not always easy to consume my food with that level of mindfulness, especially when the stress of the day is weighing upon me, but that is why it is called a practice. I cultivate my mindfulness with every meal I consume. Some days I am more successful, some days not so much.

With mindfulness my food’s taste reflects how it came to be upon my plate. For that reason I have become sensitive to the mood of the person who prepared my food. I find it more difficult to consume processed food. I can taste the difference between most organic and non-organic food. Knowing a sentient, living being has to unnecessarily die for my meal has made meat inedible in most circumstances. In mindful eating I value quality over convenience while my taste is more attuned to pureness and not chemical trickery.

I have travelled all over Canada, the US, and some of Europe. While there was good food everywhere I have been, I couldn’t say the food anywhere was better than I am used to at home. Then I went to California. The produce in California is like nothing I have tasted before. The vibrancy of the flavour of Californian produce surpasses anything I have experienced or even imagined possible. There is a lot to be said for locally grown and consumed food. I can’t imagine anyone’s food value system not changing after experiencing fresh, quality produce.

“At its most essential, the apple you hold is a manifestation of the wonderful presence of life. It is interconnected with all that is. It contains the whole universe; it is an ambassador of the cosmos coming to nourish our existence. It feeds our body, and if we eat it mindfully, it also feeds our soul and recharges our spirit.” - Thich Nhat Hanh (b. 1926)