30 Days of Thanks - Grace

30 Days of Thanks
I only just found out about this today, so I'm going to write up a post I've been composing in my head for a while, and then move on to more specific things I am thankful for.

I didn't grow up saying grace before meals, but now that I live on my own, sometimes I do. Not the standard grace you may think of, but a moment to pause and meditate on two things: the miracle of food, and the chain of people who got that food to me.
I find that I am particularly moved to do this if I've been to the gym recently; the endorphins of a workout fill me with a sense of awe and love for the whole great wide world, which is one of the reasons that I like working out.

Anyway. I like to contemplate the way food illustrates the conservation of matter. Some time ago, two hydrogen atoms got smashed together to make helium, and in the process they let off a huge burst of energy in the form of heat and light. That energy reaches Earth where a plant uses it to convert water and soil nutrients into more plant. Which then gets harvested by somebody and either comes to me or goes to an animal who converts the plant into energy and/or more animal. Either way, it eventually comes to me and my body converts it into energy. Which is really really cool. What is also really really cool is the number of people who work together to make that happen. There's the farmer and the laborers who harvest, the people who pack and ship, the people who prepare it if it's prepared. If I'm cooking it, there's the people who taught me to cook, the people who made the pans I'm using. And the people who discovered and/or invented it. If I'm eating french fries, I'm connected to the earth, the sun, the guy who harvested the potatoes, the guy who shipped them, the guy who fried them, the oil, and the guy in Belgium who invented them. Isn't that cool?

So I like to pause and be grateful for the labor that got the food to my table, and also for the fact that I have food at all. I highly recommend it. Whether you believe in a higher power or not, taking a moment to reflect on what you're eating and how that came to happen can definitely improve your day.