Giving Thanks!

A dear blogger friend, (DB) wrote the following in one of his posts recently:

“I once worked for a chef. One day during a slow period we all sat down to have lunch. The chef ladled out a bowl of soup for himself. Then he took a slice of bread out of a package in the refrigerator. He normally baked bread in the morning but for lunch he would use store bought bread. I watched him as he carefully studied that slice, turning it over in his hands a few times.”

“I asked him if he thought there was something wrong with the bread. He said there was nothing wrong with it, and then he talked about American farmers, wheat fields, the big machinery that harvested the wheat and left it in windrows to be picked up, put into a truck and taken to where it was processed into flour. He told about how the flour would be poured into large cloth or hardy paper sacks, loaded onto trucks and delivered to consumers.”

After reading DB’s post on his blog, my mind kept thinking about it every time I made myself a sandwich. It rented space in my head. Do we just give thanks only on Thanksgiving?

Now, it makes me think every time I eat a meal and recognize the dozens of people who did hard work to get food to your table…..the farmers, the grocery store clerks, the friends and relatives or restaurant chef who transforms raw vegetables into a bowl of delectable soup or side dishes.

During my last trip to Boston and while having lunch with 20 of my dearest friends at a local restaurant, one of our friends (Joanne Nardone) said grace before the meal. We all agreed that her words were absolutely lovely and coming from the heart.

Saying grace with a group of people around the table suggests not only the grazie of thanksgiving but also the calm, gracious elegance of living fully and well. Something we all don’t take the time to do.

I know I don’t find grace rushing around, gobbling down food, eating over the sink or eating too fast and polishing off a meal in 5 minutes.

I now try to sit down to eat all my meals and say a small prayer all my by myself to give thanks that transforms a meal for one into an act of celebration, focus, gratitude and Giving Thanks!

Oh, and thanks to “DB” for my thoughts while preparing this Post.