We're reading an interesting collection of writings entitled ENGAGED SPIRITUALITY; TEN LIVES of CONTEMPLATION and ACTION compiled by Janet W. Parachin. One reads a little biographical information and selections of writings by people like Elie Wiesel, Dorothy Day, Howard Thurman, and Thich Nhat Hanh.
It's the meditations on Hanh that have been following me. This man is really some kind of saint... the sort of person that can inspire even the likes of me to humor that some men are touched by Gd, by the Divine. I don't know how Hanh thinks about this stuff all the time without crying into every bowl of rice.
This is the mediation based on his writings:
As you sit down to eat one meal, pause for several minutes to look deeply into your food. Can you see the soil, sky, and water that nurtured it, and the hands that tended and harvested it? Can you be mindful of those who are hungry on this day? In light of this awareness, what would be an appropriate way to show gratitude for what you are receiving to eat?
I had to rush to work the day I read this... I brought my "breakfast" with me. As I turned from the light and drove onto 199, I started to tear up and choke a little on the bites of bread. I don't have trouble feeling gratitude... I like this idea of mindfully considering all the effort it takes to make the food we eat...
...but when I think of this, at the moment I'm eating this bread and relieving my hunger, giving myself fuel to go on, that countless adults and children haven't eaten in days... the thought is so overwhelming. Now, I realize that you can only go so far down that tunnel. You can go too far and stop eating yourself because of the guilt... which probably bypasses the point all together.
Because no one should be going hungry. There must be enough food on the planet that everyone should have a reasonable amount to eat. I think about how wasteful we are. In one of the cafés in which I worked, rather than allowing employees to take baked goods that weren't purchased that day home with them, they throw them out. I have a feeling that a number of businesses do this. Look at our own kitchens. How many expired items have been thrown out due to our negligence? We have so much, that we have that luxury to dump food in the garbage. Someone could have eaten days ago on our forgetfulness.
I don't eat but so much as it is, and I doubt that the point of the exercise is to starve yourself. Then that's just one more hungry person in the world. However, I know I could stand to be more realistic when I shop for food supplies so that fresh fruits and vegetables do not have to go to waste. I also try to be careful about how I order things in restaurants. It's easier to order too little and supplement than to put anything you can't finish back (health department codes and all). So, in restaurants, if I know the portion sizes are absurd, I try to make sure I order something that can be eaten for lunch the next day.
I read somewhere, from a female author, that though she cannot solve world hunger on her own, she can donate food to the hungry. If we were all that mindful even once per week, I think more people could be fed and less would be wasted. We mostly consider this during the holidays or when we move. Churches take donations year round, though, and if you're not the churchgoing type, several grocery stores cooperate with donation groups to offer meals to those in need. Obviously, we must sniff these programs out to make sure our donations are actually going to people who truly need them, but I think this is part of what we can get out of this meditation above. Are we at least doing our part by not wasting food or giving what we can?
One way that you can help easily is to visit The Hunger Site or Free Rice. The Hunger Site collects pledges from sponsors who donate a certain amount towards good causes every time someone simply clicks on the donation button. You don't have to do anything but go to the site and click on the button. I try to go every day. You can do a little shopping on the site as well for birthdays and holidays to donate even more. At Free Rice, you just play the game... any Vocabulary or Mathematical or Art History survey you prefer. For every question you answer correctly, grains of rice are donated to the hungry. When you think of the mindless games you play between tasks at work, chores at home, and emails, playing this game would be a constructive and kind way to spend your boredom.
Thinking of all the work that goes into the growing and harvesting of food, I choose to go to Farmers' Markets and support these hardworking families. There I have a chance to look the farmers and harvesters in the eye and thank them for what they do. I assume that the meditation means to guide us toward this mentality... just being aware, to be less wasteful, and to be grateful for what you have. This is probably half the battle towards feeling content as well.
Maybe that's just one facet of Thich Nhat Hanh's ideas for mindful living... putting us in a global mindset so that we can find happiness. Because he also considers the sunlight that triggered the process in the seed, in the soil, mixing with the waters, to perpetuate growth of something that will, when given enough time, turn into something you can have for dinner. You can consider when the seed must have been planted... maybe April? How the sun broke through the clouds enough days to encourage photosynthesis and plant would feed itself. Think about the nights that a storm was too violent and the farmers ran out in the elements to tarp things down? Think about the plant's determination, instinct, to survive, to strive, to wait for the sun to return so it may reach up and soak in the life-giving rays.
So, while I'm sure the economy has placed most of us in a position to be careful about being wasteful, find gratitude in what you have knowing that there is a terrifying number of people with significantly less than you. That plate you're looking at took a lot of work and nature perpetuated to make it so. Protect the earth. Give to humanity. You're the lucky one.
(from www.spiritualityandpractice.com) 
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