EAT, PRAY, LOVE

EAT

Find the joy in food. Taste each bite. Enjoy the flavors. Be thankful for the work that it took to create each dish. Take in those around you. Feel and soak up the fellowship. Create bonds with those in which I break bread with. That is my goal. Food is a necessity, but it is also a gift.

"Food to a large extent is what holds a society together and eating is closely linked to deep spiritual experiences."
Peter Farb and George Armelagos

Studies show that families who eat dinner together benefit in a variety of ways. Eating together helps families achieve better communication and build stronger relationships, children do better in school and are better adjusted as teens and adults, and the entire family enjoys better nutrition.

“Everyone eats and drinks, but few appreciate taste.”
Confucius (551-479 BC)

PRAY

Quiet. Still. Vulnerable. Open. Calm. Prayer is not something to be taken lightly. I don't want to be afraid to open the doors of communication with the creator of the universe. In times I have gone without it my life has been so empty. There is little purpose and little focus. As necessary as food is to the body, prayer is to my soul.

The value of consistent prayer is not that He will hear us, but that we will hear Him. ~William McGill

Prayer may not change things for you, but it for sure changes you for things. ~Samuel M. Shoemaker

"The immediate person thinks and imagines that when he prays, the important thing, the thing he must concentrate upon, is that God should hear what he is praying for. And yet, in the true, eternal sense, it is just the reverse: the true relation in prayer is not when God hears what is prayed for, but when the person praying continues to pray until he is the one who hears, who hears what God wills. The immediate person, therefore, uses many words and, therefore, makes demands in his prayer; the true man of prayer only attends."

LOVE

Isn't this the purpose of it all. To love, those who are close and those who are far. Why are we so afraid to love those who are so unfamiliar. To give without resenting. To share kindness without expecting something in return. If only we could all just love a little bit more, give a little more, share just a little more warmth. I want to love. To open all that is within me .... this is the true desire of my heart.

“Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other -- it doesn't matter who it is -- and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other.” Mother Teresa

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman.

I've been thinking," he said, "I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone." - Author Unknown

“People who love each other fully and truly are the happiest people in the world. They may have little, they may have nothing, but they are happy people. Everything depends on how we love one another.” – Mother Teresa

“For true love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow” – Antoine de Saint Exupery

Eat, Pray and Love. That is all I really want in my life.

To break bread with many people, build relationships and open doors of communication. Enjoy every burst of flavor in every single bite. Why rush every meal!! We are always in such a hurry to get on to the next thing.

I want to pray. To be in touch with every heart beat of my creator. Feel his desires in my every way.

And I want to love. Love endlessly and always. To my husband, my family, friends and those who I don't know. The world needs a little more love.