Bear's Blog

Nature! Nature is all of us, and everything in the world. There is an ongoing mutual exchange, support and reciprocity between all living organisms. And while the natural world nourishes us in many ways, I want to talk about our direct relationship with FOOD; there’s the practical, the energetic and the spiritual aspects. 

In recent years there has been more attention on local food, native plants, seed diversity and organic farming. Community gardening programs have sprung up in schools, prisons, and on empty city lots. You can join a CSA or go to the Farmer’s Market – and fresh produce is always available in the grocery store, even these last few months. Our food supply has remained relatively steady in this Covid time (Click here to access my free Corona Care Kit.) Only meat was somewhat impacted and brought to light the conditions in the meat packing industry.

Even so, victory gardens are coming back these days, and have been since at least the beginning of this century (some never went away after WWII). Initially a necessity in wartime (and we hear the war analogy in this current crisis), 

The new reasons to foster a plant? The “morale booster” of watching something grow! Putting a dent in climate change. The pure pleasure of tasting something just picked from a garden (or pot, or field). In this era of large-scale industrial farms, varieties created for early picking, and food traveling across continents, so much is lost – flavor, texture, and color (sometimes added artificially to trick us). Just as important, we miss contact with the living growing plants that we eat. Contact with the natural world feeds us on every level. The act of attention – and attention IS energy - brings us joy, wonder, and a sense of accomplishment when we harvest. 

An inspiring account of our potential relationship to plants comes from Findhorn in the 1960’s. A Scottish experiment in guidance and talking to plant devas, its founders transformed barren land to produce extremely large vegetables, including a legendary 40-lb cabbage. Check it out in “The Findhorn Garden Story”.

So once we have grown, picked or bought our food, we come to another energetic exchange. We are all familiar with the traditional ways of blessing our food – usually a moment of prayer over the meal. It’s interesting what that does, on many levels! Any gratitude practice drops us into Being, into the present moment. This engages the parasympathetic nervous system, literally preparing our bodies to receive and digest our food. I’d like to add an intentional energy practice to explore this aspect of Nature. Click here to download a quick guide to Bless your Food with Energy.

That brings me to meat - the animals we eat. The first time I held a raw buffalo steak in my hands (oh, Montana) I was stunned at the huge amount of energy it held! It was organic, and at that time buffalo being raised for food were pretty wild (now they go to feedlots like cattle). Wild animal meat is quite different than animals raised for that purpose. Anyhow, as I prepared to eat that buffalo steak I went to thank the buffalo in prayer – and it got down on its knees to me! At that moment I understood something that Native Americans have always known. I thought it was about the hides, hooves, meat and everything the buffalo provided; but this was an even deeper relationship. The buffalo are here FOR US. They willingly offer themselves to us, and always have, as their purpose for being. It was such a powerful and profound moment for me to “get” this gift.

As usual, I’d love to hear about your experiences as you Bless Your Food with Energy. Little practices to sense energy add up over time. If you want to learn to talk to plant devas, animals and so much more, join me in my Jumpstart/Foundation classes!

Bear

P.S. I’d like to give a shout-out to the Buffalo Field Campaign, who protect and defend the Yellowstone wild bison herd – on the ground, in the field! They also work on legislation, education, and much more. Help ensure the survival of future wild buffalo by donating here - https://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org