The Toaster pops
The kettle clicks
The Microwave pings
The doorbell rings
The pot boils
The wok sizzles
Our food arrives
Is prepared in many ways
By us
By others we live with
By people
In factories
Shops
Cafes
Restaurants
Hotels
Vans
We cook
We stir
We heat
We unpack
And we serve the food that we make
Or that others make for us.
We eat
Once
Twice
Three times a day.
Meals
Food
Which will keep out energy levels going
So we can move
Breath
Sleep.
So our hearts can pump
Our blood can flow
Or organs can function
And our senses can feel the world around us
We all have different likes
Dislikes
Different sizes of appetite
Some of us eat
Quickly
Slowly
Some pause between bites.
But when we eat –
Is our focus on the process?
Of looking
Tasting and smelling the food that is in front of us?
Or are we
Driving
Reading
Working at desks
Watching Tick Tok
You Tube?
Looking at images on Instagram
Of what other people are eating
And thinking how that would
Taste
Smell
And satisfy us?
And in these moments
Where?
Where are we eating?
At home?
On the sofa?
In bed?
In a car?
A café?
A canteen?
Behind a desk?
On a beach?
In a park?
Or
Are we even eating walking from one thing to another
Shovelling food down our throats
Before we become
Irritable
Tired
Weak
And what if
What if rather than shovelling food down
Like dirt being shovelled by a spade into a dark hole.
What if we paused
Breathed
And realised there is time to sit on a chair
At a table
For ten
Twenty minutes -
Even an hour
To pick up
A fork
A spoon
A knife
Whether that’s Metal
Disposable
Or wooden.
And let our bodies
Our minds
And brain
Get back into tune
Ready for the next part of the day
Of course there are the demands of the world
And others want things from us -
Families
Work Colleagues
Management
Friends
Councils
Banks
Businesses
Society and its demands of
Looking
Achieving
And being a certain way.
But we are all individual
Are all allowed to say No
To be allowed
To take time
To Stop
To Eat
Without distraction
Without being pulled away.
And it’s ok to leave someone on
Grey Tick
Blue Tick
On whats app
As you pick up that
Fork
Knife
Or spoon
To take a break
A break that you are allowed to
To keep your world strong
In a world of working of working from home
Unemployment
Freelance
Modern families
There is a perception
Of more time
More flexibility
Availability
But this can lead to less time
Less structure
For feeding
Our bodies and minds with food
That keeps us achieving
And doing the things that we want to do
And that others need or want us to do.
Unless
Unless
We take control
Of this ourselves
By stopping
By setting alarms
To give us our own structure
One that serves us
And for the benefit of those around us
Like a building
Our bodies are a structure
We have
Bones
Muscles
Tissue
Organs
And to maintain our building
We need to feed ourselves
With time, space and food.
So that our structure
Despite the demands of the world
Can stay strong
And whether
That food comes from
The ping of a microwave
A boiling pot
The sizzle of a wok
Or a shop
We need to take time to sit
To sit and enjoy what we are eating
Mouthful by mouthful
So that the energy for the basic functions of our body are met
To Breath,
Sleep
Move
Have our blood pumped around our body.
And maybe then
Maybe then
Then we can have the strongest chance to achieve
Achieve many possible things.