How to Eat a Leaf
Meet Shababa. She's a three-toed sloth who lives in CBI Kindergarten. For those of you who don't know her, she is a contemplative, slow-moving (very slow-moving), mindful creature. One morning, she had a hankering for her favorite food, juicy green leaves. The kids gathered around and observed how she ate.
First, she looked closely at a leaf, examining it from all sides. Then, she slowly sniffed it. She held it to her ear and listened. She felt it with the 3 toes on her left paw. When she was ready, she slowly placed the leaf in her mouth and began to chew. Carefully she munched, not swallowing (which takes a lot of impulse control). She tasted the leaf in all parts of her mouth, so she could really enjoy its yumminess. Before she swallowed, she closed her eyes to better concentrate on what it felt like to swallow the chewed leaf and let it travel down into her body. As she lifted her head after swallowing, the kids asked her to open her mouth. She did, and showed them that the leaf was now gone! Audible gasps! "Wait, what?!" "How did that happen?" "She's a puppet, but she ate the leaf?!" "Wow!"
We picked up a book about a boy named Eliot who loves candy. His friend encourages him to eat an apple because he may just discover something special.
Eliot carefully and attentively examines his apple. He notices differences in the coloration. He smells a flowery, sweet scent. He feels smoothness and bumpiness. He doesn't hear anything until he tosses it in the air and it goes "thwack" when he catches it. It makes a big crunching sound when he bites into it. When he finally takes a bite, he chews very slowly, paying attention to how the apple feels in his mouth. It has a variety of tastes. He even pushes it up against the roof of his mouth and senses the fruit's juiciness. Finally, he swallows. He realizes, after this mindful exploration, that this was no ordinary apple. It dawns on him that he can try eating mindfully with other foods: mac and cheese / pizza / even foods he doesn't like such as broccoli and peas.
Now it was our turn to eat mindfully. Everyone held a large apple slice and gazed intently at it.
They sniffed the slice. "This smells so good!" "I smell flowers!"
Holding the apple to their ears, they listened.
They felt its weight, its coolness, its smooth outside and its more rough inside.
"Now, can we eat it?"
It was time. Everyone took a slow bite. They chewed, and just like Shababa, they weren't allowed to swallow just yet. They rolled the fruit around with their tongues. "It's sweet!" "Mine's a little sour, but I love it!"
When the all-clear was given, everyone closed their eyes and swallowed. They felt the apple moving down their throats into their stomachs.
""That was the most yummy apple I've ever eaten!"
We call this "Mindful Eating." When you eat mindfully, you not only savor the experience, you feel more nourished. You find yourself in the present moment, not rushing or planning your next action. Most importantly, mindful eating makes you feel grateful - grateful that you have food to eat, grateful that your body can enjoy and process your food, grateful that food gives you energy to play and work, and grateful to the earth for providing your food.
Singing a blessing before eating draws our attention to the act of eating, so that we stop and notice what is happening in our bodies and minds as we eat.
A final mediation on mindful eating:
As we make ready to eat this food
we remember with gratitude
the many people, tools, animals and plants,
air and water, sky and earth,
turned in the wheel of living and dying,
whose joyful exertion
provides our sustenance this day.
May we with the blessing of this food
join our hearts
to the one heart of the world
in awareness and love,
and may we together with everyone
realize the path of awakening,
and never stop making effort
for the benefit of others.
- Norman Fischer
