Maebius Musing

Happy new Year New Moon!

This post is about food. Specifically, the sacred and divine nature of yummy-ness that is consumed to feed our bodies and thus fuel our daily activities, be they mundane or miraculous. Eating is necessary to survive, and most food is taken in to do simply that. but then there is Food. Food with a capitol ‘F’, and is something which is eaten to Nourish us. Things like rich, organic, 80% cocoa, chocolate bars. Things like fresh-baked bread with a drizzle of honey and butter.

But specific things we can eat, even twinkies, can become Food if we are mindful of their consumption, and attach a bit of thought and intent to the process of sticking in in our gut. Granted, some items are better suited for such sacrament, and Twinkies are not really recommended over healthy foods, but they work as periodic treats/rewards if you are so inclined.

Each day, I am trying to be mindful of my eating choices. Instead of grabbing a bowl of Sugary cereal(like Capt’n Crunch) I choose generic Raisin Bran. Instead of a shoveling in a fast-food lunch, I bring leftovers from home, which taste better and are cheaper. Little steps like this, while small, can add up quite well in the long run, and are helping transition my general eating habits. (See prior post regarding salad-craving).

In addition to choosing what I eat, and this choice is by NO means a strict diet, more of a “I’ll skip the soda today and have a tea” type of thing….In addition to that, I am making an effort to really acknowledge my food as I hold it up before my mouth.

The meatloaf leftovers I have…they taste good, and I remind myself this beef is/was part Norman (our cow). The potatoes are from either our garden or my in-laws. The beans, from the store, but once a green living plant.

I know we all realize on an intellectual level that beans are a plant, and beef=bovine, but the sacred part of what I am trying is to Remind yourself that, each and every time you take a nibble on some food. I don’t feel drawn to offering up a prayer and blessing to cows of the world when I eat a burger, but slowly, the more I am reminded that’s where the burger comes from, the more the deep inner bits of my spirit smile. I now am starting to find my food-origin thoughts are becoming a reflex, that the mental this=that connection springs to mind automatically now.

In the case of a Twinkie, I have to stop and think a bit more, realizing in some way, part of the cake was a wheat plant, which has gotten mangled, drowned, and tortured into the current form. It’s not quite as bad as those particular terms, but they sprung to mind when tracing back to the origins of a Twinkie. This process leads me naturally to think, along the lines of “wheat = grain, perhaps a granola bar or actual home-baked cake leftovers would still be yummy and more wholesome than the Twinkie”.

It won’t stop me from treating myself to one from time to time, but it does make the decision be more informed and help avoid mere cravings for sweet and concentrate more on when I’m actually just hungry. (Though actually I have not eaten an actual Twinkie for years, but is a good metaphor for other foods)

As I mentioned before, keeping up this practice for an entire month on something so ‘mundane’ and continually present in my life such as ‘food’, is practice for the habit of meditation.

Referencing what many would consider the more wholesome foods, such as “80% cocoa” or fresh whole-grain bread with local honey, the experience becomes a bit closer to what some might consider a sacred ritual.

Example of today’s meatloaf: we raised the cow which provided the meat in this meal. We dug in the dirt, and grew the spuds which accompany it. Consuming this food completes a circle of life and death. Gifts and effort on our part, returning to us again. Energy sent into the world, to care for and keep healthy a bunch of other living organisms is now providing myself energy and health. Can’t define magick better than that, can we?!

And since magic[k] as I understand it is so intertwined with spirituality, and I do believe that Norman had a spirit of his own, I am reconnecting with the divine Spark of Life by taking in this Food. It’s a subtle thing, and much deeper than my meager words can relate to you, but I hope you readers understand the concept between these words.

What we eat, if it is consumed with a nod to the origins, and with an occasional almost-reverence, is Food. Food nourishes our bodies and spirits. I challenge you folks to try this little practice for one week (or one cycle of the moon if daring). I’d love to see comments about the results.

And to paraphrase Valentine Michael Smith…….May you never Hunger.

-Nate

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Firstly, I’d must say sorry for missing the New Moon musing this month. We had work insanity, family illnesses, and the general bustle of pre-holiday preparations going on. I completely forgot to post something, although I had thought of an idea to muse about. However, that topic will be saved for a later draft, since the article below hits a bit close to home (figuratively speaking).
http://www.newsweek.com/id/76929

In summary:

This is the real world of eating and nutrition in the rural United States. Forget plucking an apple from a tree, or an egg from under a chicken. “The stereotype is everyone in rural America lives on a farm, which is far from the truth,” says Jim Weill, president of the nonprofit Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). New research from the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health shows just how unhealthy the country life can be. The study, which examined food-shopping options in Orangeburg County (1,106 square miles, population 91,500), found a dearth of supermarkets and grocery stores. Of the 77 stores that sold food in Orangeburg County in 2004, when the study was done, 57—nearly 75 percent—were convenience stores. Grocery stores, which stock far more fruits and vegetables than convenience stores, are often too far away…

I have periodically worried about the fact that my friend Nettle can walk a block and a half to a farmer’s market and get local produce, organic meats, and such from farmers who live relatively close to the city. Likewise, the urban area she lives in has at least two awesome stores within easy range. Trader Joes (which while not ‘local’ foods, is often organic or FairTrade semi-sustainable food products), and Whole Foods Market which hosts plenty of healthy groceries, albeit for slightly more cost than your average Twinkie[tm].

Where I live, the nearest grocery store is a good six miles away (11 miles if we go to the “big one in town”), and while they lately have improved their organic/Natural/Healthy section over the past two years considerably, I lament the fact that the fruits and veggies there all are shipped from California, Florida, CUBA?!, and other semi-tropical locations. It is only VERY rarely that local products are displayed prominently (sweet corn for example, or pumpkins, even strawberries-in-season are usually found to be imported if you look closely at the packaging!?!)

Luckily, we have been blessed with a bit of land, and do our small part to grow a selection of veggies, but so far have not made a transition to “survival foods” and only grow enough for a nice treat when the various things get ripe. Though we do stock up with making Jelly and cordials/syrups from the Elderberry bushes, jar up pickles using our cucumbers, onions, and garlic, and salsa and “sauce” from the tomatoes/pepper/garlic/etc, or dry herbs (teas mostly). Thus, we do manage to enjoy the “fruits” of our labor over the remainder of each year.

Still, the over-hyped and recently Hip trend to be “Green” is something not really seen in my area. Farmers still struggle to roll out huge tracts of subsidized soybean and feed-corn fields, the local native American tribe buying up land using their nearby casino-corporation and has allowed some land to just sit fallow for a few years now. It is rare to even see road-side wagons with “fresh Produce”. I know of two farms which offer their spoils, and do frequent them for things we are not growing ourselves, but otherwise, this rural area is too caught up in other things and just can’t really offer the same benefits and healthy choices that folks in the city can.

It’s not just the distance to the grocery, or the ease of mass-transit in the cities. There’s something inherently flawed I think in the cultural structure. Not sure what it is, not sure how to start changing it, but I can confirm the basic connotation in the Newsweek story above are based in fact.

We are slowly expanding out knowledge of gardening, and each year brings a few more/different fresh produce to our table, but that knowledge goes no further than my wife and son. with needing to work a daily job to afford the bills currently, there’s no way to turn full-farm and try to get a local producery established. friends I knew started a community co-op, but it faltered due to lack of prospects. The working team got organized, but other than that immediate circle of friends, the outside customers just did not materialize, mainly for the reasons listed in that article. Distance. Time. Hassle. cost?

I have approached our neighbor who raises dairy cows in the thought of getting a quart or two of milk from time to time, fresh, raw, and yummy, but was met with such a look of confusion and fear that I’d even Suggest such a thing, I backed down quickly and have not found any other locals willing to even debate such an idea. The general gestalt seems to run towards selling your goods out for the subsidies, and home-gardening a bit for some nice treats in summer…. “I hear there’s that All-natural store in town that sells that type of thing”…. *sigh*

My musing is…where can I go from here without rallying against the world and being “too hippy-green”? Or is simply doing what we are doing and learning to take care of ourselves the best idea for now?

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Blogging has been a bit quiet lately, due to a slight change in priorities at work, and a new-found obsession at home. (alright, it’s an old obsession, but “World of Warcraft” is now my official Addiction….got pulled into a good guild that needs a healer, so my holy priestess is going through all the higher instances weekly. Just cleared out Zul’Farrak, Sunken Temple, and halfway through Blackrock Depths the past two weeks! never knew I was a raider at heart. But I love the challenge of keeping 4 other folks alive against mobs of elite mobs!)

Ahem.. anyway….

Yesterday was grocery day and Mrs Maebius treated me with a pomegranate for my lunch today. And it is a little known fact that Pomegranates are one of my favorite ‘toy’ foods, and at the same time always make me muse spiritualically (is that a word?).

On the toy aspect of things, there is a certain undeniable charm in ferreting out all the gleaming red jewels from inside them. Each seed [pod?] full of flavour and juicy hand-staining goodness. It takes a bit of effort to eat a pomegranate properly. And the time investment required forces one to be patient and truly Enjoy the experience.

The juice pops in your mouth, there is a slight crunch (if you eat them like I do by gathering a small handful of seeds and chomping them at once) to satisfy the visceral primitive food-brain. *grin*

And as you can see by my waxing a bit poetic and rather epic-sounding for something simple like “eating my snack at work”, there is a much deeper joy and Mystery unlocked by the garnet clusters than simple hunger-abatement.

The deeper spiritual aspect of eating Pomegranates is a bit harder to explain. Perhaps it is my knowledge of the myths involving Persephone? Knowing that winter is here, and recalling the seeds that ‘brought it’ mayhaps forges a deep archetypal connection to the season? Ancestrally, I don’t really have any connection to the culture, but the myth stands firmly in mind as related to this fruit.

Additionally, and perhaps as a correlation to that myth, Pomegranates tend to be internalized by my inner-thoughts as a metaphor for the sorts of personal meditations and musing that are embodied in the post-autumn seasonal spirit.

Each seed pod needs to be dug out from it’s matrix, not so quickly en masse that they burst and juice stains the greater 5-mile area. Just carefully and patiently, each one requiring a brief bit of attention until you get a small handful and the knowledge that your mouth is moments away from a rapturous YUM. Likewise, meditation topics recalling the prior year, or my current situation need to be considered slowly, until a few gems of wisdom are collected and fused into an integrated whole, bringing benefits or removing obstacles I had built up.

So, While Bananas or Oranges may be touted as “the perfect food”…I’d like to take this opportunity to nominate a slightly lesser known item.

Pomegranates.

Not quite local (a minor sticking point perhaps), but exotic and loved!

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Well, this month will be rather spartan with the Blog posts, but I wanted to post a picture that Summer is officially over here in upstate, NY. Yes, that is snow in our yard, taken this morning, November 8th, 2007.

( click here for full-size)

NaNoWriMo is more of a pain than I envisioned, but in one way is kinda neat. I just need to get the time set aside to actually write things. I have ideas now, it’s just finding a block of time that is NOT after 10pm to sit and type it out. I have penciled a few things at work on tablets, but more sentence fragments and ideas than actual Writing Words. (though I have another 865 words done today so far, not including this blog entry!)
For your viewing enjoyment, here are some random pictures….

Firstly, the roadkill bird we had for lunch on Saturday. Delivered fresh right to our driveay as I was outside cleaning up the porch. This represents Maebius’ first ever attempt to prepare from-whole a wild game animal. It was a rather interesting learning experience in anatomy and such. Tasted pretty good, though a bit dry and tough. Learned afterwards a better way to cook such things…

Lastly, we had friends come up from PA to visit for my birthday (I am 33 now, yay!) which is one BIG reason I’m behind on NaNoWriMo since my computer is in the “spare room” they slept in. Here is a cute pic of my boy and theirs watching TV.
Enjoy!

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Just a few quick updates on life, while we prepare for Halloween and such…

Mrs Maebius had expressed interest in getting her motorcycle-class license to drive a 2-wheeled wonder around the streets and highways of New York. This week, she took solid steps towards making that a reality. Continue Reading »

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