D-I-S-C-O-N-N-E-C-T

It's Thanksgiving. The value of "home cooked" food goes way up on this holiday. It's one of the few times of year when the general population actually spends a significant amount of time in the kitchen preparing the food they plan to eat. Of course the food industry has come up with plenty of "short cuts" to keep a good distance between us and our food, but I enjoy living in the fantasy that kitchens are being used like never before during this holiday. People are getting up close and personal with their food. It's a great thing!

Unfortunately, I don't think this is the norm for everyday life.We find ourselves in a place today where food is of little or no value. It's just a commodity. We are so disconnected from our food that we see it as a cumbersome chore to grow, buy, prepare, or even eat, so we let someone else do most of the work for us. When I got married, I didn't know what to do with the pots and pans I received for wedding gifts. My life was full of eating out and taking out and grabbing food wherever I could get it. So for Lent one year, I decided to give up eating out. I thought it would be the longest 40 days of my life. Fortunately for me, it totally improved my life. It's when I began to get connected to my food.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving 2008. I was in Athol, MA with my sister and her family where almost every item on our plate was secured within 50 miles of her home. Better yet, my sister had grown a lot of what we were eating. We got milk from a cow, cut greens out of the field, harvested sweet potatoes, and met the farmer who raised our turkey. I don't think I have ever been so intimately connected to my food--knowing who grew it, seeing where it grew, touching the soil that birthed it. It was a spiritual experience. I felt really connected to the rest of the universe. My eyes were opened to how everything is intertwined.

One of the images I like to use with my clients is that of an internal rain forest. When we take away one component of food, it messes up the ecosystem of our bodies much like the rain forest is altered forever when one tiny bug is removed. I'm beginning to see this same rain forest example play itself out in my spiritual journey. The more disconnected I am from my food, the more disconnected I am from God. Thank goodness the reverse is also true. This new insight is what I'm most thankful for this year.

Can't pontificate anymore--got to get connected to my food and God by putting my hands on some beets grown by my friends Candice and Joel at Crabtree Farms. Happy connected Thanksgiving!