Sunday, December 19, 2004

First Nourishment of the Day

For many of us it is a quickly snatched hot cup of coffee or tea, and maybe a portable energy bar or a breakfast sandwich wrapped in foil and received from a fast food window.

As we consume it -- liquid or solid, hot or lukewarm or cold -- we pay it only a smidgeon of our attention. Maybe the heat briefly scalds the mouth as we rush to swallow, or the familiar flavor strikes the taste buds with "eggness," or "cerealness" or any number of other well-known things we consume all our lives.

The rest of our attention is on the world around us -- whether it is the road as we hold the wheel, or the work on the computer screen in our office. And thus we rush to swallow, to chew, to blandly fill ourselves.

The first nourishment of the day, the energy that will power and drive us, is taken in without awareness, or appreciation.

It is a pity. Because if we took the proper time to focus upon it, it would do us more tangible good.

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