How to Find the Sacred in Food: Inspiration from 'Mariel's Kitchen'

How to Find the Sacred in Food: Inspiration from 'Mariel's Kitchen'
An impassioned essay and a yummy recipe from Mariel Hemingway's new four-season cookbook Mariel's Kitchen: Simple Ingredients for a Delicious and Satisfying Life.
By Mariel Hemingway
link to full article below

We all have a relationship to food that is at once joyous and infuriating. Food is a basic essential; we can't get away from it. We have to eat to survive and thrive. Yet it appears, in this country especially, that we've turned desperate around food, through over indulgence. This may seem contradictory; let me explain.

We love to eat because we love the feeling that food gives us. It is nurturing, it is grounding. Often, however, that feeling is a replacement for our sense of well-being and love. By nature, humans want more love — that's all anybody really wants — so we turn to food to get a sense of self. It's easier that way, because it has no person attached to it, judging us or finding reasons we shouldn't be loved.

So we eat more, because if love is what we desire, we certainly want more of it. We anthropomorphize food, making it our friend, our lover, our partner, our therapist. This takes away the need to look at the deeper issues of why we feel unloved.

Make food a celebratory, expressive aspect of your life!

Food is such a beautiful part of our lives. I want to invite people and myself to gracefully find a way to turn food into a valued ceremony that enhances our lives on every level.

To read the full article: http://life.gaiam.com/gaiam/p/Finding-the-Sacred-in-Food-From-Mariels-Kitchen.html