From the Farm to My Table


I’m not a farmer.

I’m not an expert on how to distribute food.

What I do know is that I’m grateful.

I’m grateful when I open my refrigerator and it has food in it.

On most days I don’t think about how amazing it is that this food found its way onto my table.

Today I am.

We are living in a time where there is food insecurity and economic insecurity. I’m keenly aware of this.

In this moment I want to express gratitude for the hundreds of people that it took to get the food from the farm to my table.

Somebody had to pick out the seeds that would go in the ground. Then somebody had to put the seeds in the machines that planted the seeds. Then they were planted in the ground. Then they were harvested by somebody. Then somebody had to get the food on a truck. Then some beautiful soul had to drive the truck. Then this beautiful soul delivered it to the store. Then some amazing human being stocked the shelves. Then a wonderful person cooked the food. I am blessed to be married to a wonderful wife who is gifted with many culinary skills. I do my best to help in the kitchen, but she has the real gift.

I know that I'm missing many small steps between all these big steps. What I want to convey is that I acknowledge the commitment that these beautiful souls made to bring me my food. Without them I would starve. I don’t have the ability to do all these steps myself.

As I contemplate the beautiful chain of events that take place every day to keep me alive, I am aware of the dependence that we have on each other. Every person in the supply chain is as important as any other. Every hand that carries my food is a blessed angel that keeps me alive. My life is connected to every other life.

At this time in history, I am reminded that the person who picks up my garbage is as important as the person who does my taxes. The person who stocks the store shelves is as important as the person who runs my bank. The person who drives the food truck is as important as the president of the large corporation.

The chain of support that keeps me alive is to be celebrated. The chain of support is made up of human beings. This beautiful chain of support is to be honored and cared for.

I invite you today when you take your next bite of food to remember all the people that helped bring it to you.

If you are one of these beautiful souls who helped me to survive another day, I want to express my gratitude. You are my hero. You are keeping me alive today.

Thank you!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You Deserve To Be Supported

The pr ocess of writing my book has been so interesting. So many opportunities for me to look at myself and the way that I approach things. One of the most interesting opportunities is the one around the ability to say that I don't understand something. This brings me to what I wanted to  write about here.  That is this false belief that I should be able to know something before I know it. Yes, I read that sentence and say that doesn't even make sense. But, how many of us have taken on a project thinking we should not be able to ask questions about it? It's like the person  (not that I have even done this:) who gets lost driving, but refuses to ask for directions. Truth is our GPS takes care of that most of the time, but there are still times we need to ask.  If the goal of doing a project is to get it done is to get it done, it just makes sense to ask questions. Right? Well, the inability to ask questions usually stems from deeper issues that cannot be just...
Read more

Staying the Course

How many of us can relate to being distracted? How can we not? Every five seconds there is another notification on our smart phones. And, life just being what it is will always be presenting us with another situation to deal with. It's life. It's reality. It seems that it has always been a struggle for me to simply stick with whatever project I embark on. Whenever I start something, it seems that the follow through becomes challenging. Maybe there is some psychological issue I could look at. Maybe I'm just human. Maybe it's just normal. To stay the course in life I believe requires a commitment to the thing we set out to do. It requires saying to ourselves that we will let nothing ultimately stand in our way. And, this commitment has to be so important to us that we will not let the distractions through us off the path. It's about priorities. When we know what is important to us we will find the resources to make it happen. I absolutely believe in the adage th...
Read more

Not Waiting Anymore

Waiting.  Always waiting. Waiting for the right time to change jobs. Waiting for the right time to find a new home. Waiting to lose weight, to have enough in the bank, to look better, etc. There is always a reason not to act. I believe that much of my delaying has been about waiting for that perfect sign from the universe that it was now ok to act on whatever I desired. I believed that the universe would indeed give me a sign that it was now the right time to act. I thought that there would be some great sign to point me in the right direction. Well... The time never comes right? I know I'm not alone in this. Really, it is that feeling of fear that I might act in a way that was not the right thing to do. Don't I have to know how it's all going to work out before I act? Doesn't everything have to make sense before I take a risk? Here are some truths I have stumbled upon in my years of trying to make sense of my reluctance to act: 1. There never is a perfect time t...
Read more