Autumn is the season when we can fully appreciate our connection to what sustains us—our home and hearth, families and friends … and our food. Having a balanced outlook on life means you know you are part of the whole. It’s understanding the energetic exchange between you and the universe, your symbiotic relationship with the whole. The fall harvest is a great time to recognize that growing your own food and eating it is part of your interdependency with your spiritual source and with the planet.
We are interdependent with nature
Our culture and society of convenience have divorced us from our natural connection with the earth. Capitalism has changed how we nourish ourselves. Our kids no longer see their connection with nature. They think our food magically arrives at the grocery store in microwave-safe baggies. We adults have also lost our reverence for nature. I remember the time my son wanted me to buy him something. “Sweetie, we can’t today,” I told him. “I don’t have enough money for that.” What did he say to me? “Don’t worry, Mom. Let’s just go to the ATM and get more out of the money machine! Don’t you know that’s where money comes from?” It’s up to us to teach our children that we and nature are one, big organic equation.
We depend upon nature, upon our Mother Earth, for our sustenance. Mother Earth’s bounty is awesome. We need to remember to express regular appreciation for it. It begins with connecting with our food—how it’s grown, what the soil smells like, how good it feels to harvest the miracle of nature that is one vegetable, any vegetable. When we sit down to bless our food and eat, we experience a more compete state of gratitude. We give thanks for our beautiful opportunity to be alive as a human being.
When we see ourselves as part of this larger equation, we become empowered and awaken spiritually, too. I have a friend who is now a monk living in India. When he was going through his awakening process, he sat down to dinner one night and began to laugh hysterically. “What’s going on?” we asked him. He was practically rolling on the floor. “What’s so funny?” He said he’d just realized that by eating his food, he was eating himself. He’d just realized that we are all one, that the universe is one and we are all part of this magnificence we call oneness. For him, it was a moment of happy spiritual awareness where he realized that he was a part of all oneness.
In everyday life, how can we better understand our oneness and appreciate our connectivity with all life?
- Get out in your garden more. Spend less time (and money) in the store. Get close to nature. Smell the soil, dig in it. Show your kids how to plant seeds and watch them grow. Take time to talk to your kids about the miracle of nature. Everything is eating something else in this magnificent cycle of life! There’s a whole world going on out there that we don’t fully appreciate, so let’s learn to be part of it! When harvest time comes around, pick fruits or vegetables together and eat them for dinner.
- Meditate outside regularly. Get quiet. Look up at the sky. Listen to the sounds of nature. Project a vibration of gratitude for the miracles of nature and for the planet. Don’t be embarrassed to be a tree hugger.
- Bless your food. The family dynamic of connecting around the food is an important ritual. It’s an acknowledgement of sharing the things that sustain us physically. It’s acknowledging what we have in common with everyone on the planet. Blessing our food is an expression of thankfulness to the earth.
When we think of these simple acts in life, we are learning to live consciously in the present.
So, today let’s affirm (and let’s do this outside):
“At this moment, I see Spirit as my Source, my food, and I recognize this in myself, in every individual, and in everything on this beautiful planet. From this day forward, I choose to see the energy of goodness in everyone and their contribution, no matter how small or large. I am supported in the dynamic equation of life.”
Every Blessing,
© Charlene M Proctor and The Goddess Network, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
For other affirmations about positive body image and weight loss, and Charlene’s Lose Weight, Feel Great, Meditate Diet, please click here to download. For more affirmations, read The Women’s Book of Empowerment: 323 Affirmations that Change Everyday Problems into Moments of Potential. Click Here to buy.
