January 30th, 2017
Word of the Day: macerate (v):
We listen to words
so we can silently
reach into the other.
Let the ear and mouth get quiet,
so this taste can come to the lip.
Too long we have been saying poetry,
talking discourses, explaining the mystery out loud.
Let us try a dumb experiment.
____
The One Time You Should Sit Down
Though I am skeptical that it is contributing to our premature death and the cause of all that ails modern society, research does suggest that we sit more today then we ever did in the past. What with our sedentary cubicle lifestyles, cuts on recess, .... this comes as no surprise.
Yet, I am willing to wager that there are specific times during our day when we are sitting less and moving about more.
Eating.
Whether it's wolfing down breakfast on the way to class, juggling a croissant, a coffee, a banana, and a backpack or eating while doing work or some other task or eating while running errands, eating's place as a verb becomes a whole lot less important than the other verb we are engaged in.
This isn't about what the best thing to do it in terms of health or dieting - this has more to do with our increased propensity to multi-task and maximize which in turn leads to our increased propensity to stress out, zone out, and burn out. We are at once overly engaged and disengaged. Super-human and slothful. Overly ambitious or apathetic. Zealous or zombies. Productive or procrastinating.
What gives?
Tomorrow, I am going to encourage myself most of all (and invite you, if you would like) to eat just 1 meal - that's right, just 1 - without distractions or work or zoning out or standing or engaging in something that isn't the meal. I invite you to engage in gratitude for the food, if that is something that fits for you. And I invite you to engage your 5 senses with the food.
What does the food look like? Colors? Patterns?
What does the food taste like? Texture? Let the food linger on your tongue for a moment before swallowing.
What does the food smell like? Bring the food to your nostrils and inhale deeply before blindly eating.
What does the food sound like? Does it crunch? Sizzle? Slurp?
What does the food taste like? Can you distinguish the nuances of sweet, spicy, salty, sour, bitter, umami, etc.?
Thoughts?
Word of the Day: macerate (v):
1. to cause to waste
away by or as if by excessive fasting
2. to soften by
steeping or soaking so as to separate the parts
A Dumb Experiment
Break open your personal self
to taste the story of the nutmeat soul.
These voices come from that rattling
against the outer shell.
The nut and the oil inside
have voices that can only be heard
with another kind of listening.
If it weren't for the sweetness of the nut,
the inner talking, who would ever shake a walnut?
Break open your personal self
to taste the story of the nutmeat soul.
These voices come from that rattling
against the outer shell.
The nut and the oil inside
have voices that can only be heard
with another kind of listening.
If it weren't for the sweetness of the nut,
the inner talking, who would ever shake a walnut?
We listen to words
so we can silently
reach into the other.
Let the ear and mouth get quiet,
so this taste can come to the lip.
Too long we have been saying poetry,
talking discourses, explaining the mystery out loud.
Let us try a dumb experiment.
____
The One Time You Should Sit Down
Though I am skeptical that it is contributing to our premature death and the cause of all that ails modern society, research does suggest that we sit more today then we ever did in the past. What with our sedentary cubicle lifestyles, cuts on recess, .... this comes as no surprise.
Yet, I am willing to wager that there are specific times during our day when we are sitting less and moving about more.
Eating.
Whether it's wolfing down breakfast on the way to class, juggling a croissant, a coffee, a banana, and a backpack or eating while doing work or some other task or eating while running errands, eating's place as a verb becomes a whole lot less important than the other verb we are engaged in.
This isn't about what the best thing to do it in terms of health or dieting - this has more to do with our increased propensity to multi-task and maximize which in turn leads to our increased propensity to stress out, zone out, and burn out. We are at once overly engaged and disengaged. Super-human and slothful. Overly ambitious or apathetic. Zealous or zombies. Productive or procrastinating.
What gives?
Tomorrow, I am going to encourage myself most of all (and invite you, if you would like) to eat just 1 meal - that's right, just 1 - without distractions or work or zoning out or standing or engaging in something that isn't the meal. I invite you to engage in gratitude for the food, if that is something that fits for you. And I invite you to engage your 5 senses with the food.
What does the food look like? Colors? Patterns?
What does the food taste like? Texture? Let the food linger on your tongue for a moment before swallowing.
What does the food smell like? Bring the food to your nostrils and inhale deeply before blindly eating.
What does the food sound like? Does it crunch? Sizzle? Slurp?
What does the food taste like? Can you distinguish the nuances of sweet, spicy, salty, sour, bitter, umami, etc.?
Thoughts?
Great idea - and probably very applicable to me too
ReplyDeleteLoveD
You and me both!
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