Your Intention Is What Matters

When I was younger, every time before I ate, I would do a religious hand gesture to “bless” my food. I would draw a cross in the air tapping my chest and head. That's what my parents did, what most relatives did and all catholic people I knew. I did this until my late teenage years, maybe early twenties; it stopped making sense early on but I was just doing it out of habit. I was just following my parents' teachings.

Drawing a cross, or any other symbol, across your body won't magically make the food holy, or more digestible, or more nourishing. Nor does The Absolute (God) demand that kind of silly worship.

The only purpose of a gesture like this is to bring your attention to the food. To help you remember the intention behind eating and giving thanks to the people who prepared it. For being lucky enough to have such food in front of you.

We certainly don’t need to draw weird religious symbols in the air to be grateful for our food, right? Can't we just appreciate the food and bring thoughts of gratitude and readiness to receive nourishment from such food?

How many of us are guilty of watching TV when eating dinner? Of scrolling through our instagram feed while eating lunch? Mindlessly chugging our food with little consideration and intention behind the act.