Getting a handle on what we eat - Part 1 of 3 - Michelle Boccanfuso Nanouche, CSB Christian Science Practitioner & Teacher

3/3/2012

Getting a handle on what we eat - Part 1 of 3

“Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth and wipeth her mouth and saith, I have done no wickedness.” Proverbs 30:20

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy devotes a lot of attention to food and our relationship with it. I don’t think other conditions get quite as much attention in the book as do food-related problems, except maybe tuberculosis (referred to as consumption).

Christ Jesus gave the subject a good airing in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, “Take no thought... saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink?” (Matthew 6:31)

How many of us have used those words as a justification for overindulging, under-eating, or making unbalanced food choices?

Interestingly Jesus spoke of food worries just after his discussion of spiritual satisfaction and completeness – in considering the lilies. (See Matthew 6:28) Even as a small seed, a lily includes everything it needs to be a fully formed flower. To me Jesus was saying that just like the lilies, our health, beauty and form are built-ins. When we “consider the lilies” we can behold within ourselves God’s expression of wholeness, of goodness, and in so doing we gain a good model for thinking about and caring for our bodies. It involves a certain mindfulness of spiritual being, and staying on topic in relation to caring for ourselves. When the discussion turns to the subject of food, I think Jesus begs the question, “Are you willing to stay awake to spiritual identification long enough to carry it into your daily routine?"

I don't think Jesus' words to "take no thought" can be used as a justification for eating in an unbalanced way. He doesn’t give an excuse for overindulging in sweets, eating unnecessarily, eating a poor quality of food, or denying oneself properly balanced nourishment.

In fact, such behavior often induces way more “food thought” by the attention given to the symptoms of reaction on the body! Don' forget, your body is an obedient little buddy. It follows to a T what influences it. Physically speaking, we can think of the body as the embodiment or expression of thought. It’s like a canvas upon which is projected the best and the worst of what we accept as influences in our lives.

So what constitutes a healthy relationship with food? We have a helpful hint in the commandment - “Thou shalt not commit adultery” Stay true to your first love, or as Jesus put it: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God”.

In the Glossary of Science and Health, there are three definitions for KINGDOM OF HEAVEN that shed some light on the kingdom of God that Jesus was referring to. The 1st definition is, “The reign of harmony in divine Science”.

Harmony and balance are important to consider in relation to eating. We might ask, how is mealtime giving me an opportunity to witness more of God’s harmonious control of the body and relinquish human control? We shouldn't let food be an enemy. But it also isn’t our best or only friend!

Food is simply a human provision for expressing and experiencing the harmony and balance of God’s creation. We have every right to enjoy it in its true light.

Mealtime can be a time of engaging with the good in God’s creation.

Respect yourself and the food you eat.
Don't let yourself be used as a human garbage pail.

As in all things, we can be purposeful and alert in our eating habits – we can let eating reflect spiritual goals and be an arena for exeriencing harmony and balance.

We deal with this subject of food at least 3 times a day, everyday, if not more. So lets not make our relationship with food a curse. It shouldn't be allowed to distract you from your real job of reflecting and witnessing to God's goodness!

Do check out the wonderful comments below before continuing to Part 2 of the series.

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Sue

3/3/2012 12:42:03 am

Thank you for this timely blog. In a week when two relatives appear to need to watch the kind of food they eat and adjust their diets to ensure their continued good health I am so grateful for this! As someone who loves to cook it has seemed like a limitation on me too with the need to read the backs of food packets now to check for the apparently offrnding items. I must confess to not having noticed the extent to which Mrs Eddy deals with this. Shall dig deeper!

Michelle Nanouche link

3/3/2012 03:41:54 am

Hi Sue,

Thanks so much for commenting on this. Helping someone else work through their fears about food demands such sensitivity and tenderness. It can sometimes be tough to stay out of someone else's dream while being a support and helping thought move forward. There are some thoughts in Eddy's Unity of Good on page 11 that are quite helpful on the subject. I do hope you will take a look at some of the articles linked about. They come at the issue from the patient and the caregiver perspectives.

Kathleen

3/3/2012 05:21:05 am

This article is great, Michelle! Yesterday I was given a two-pound box of Godiva chocolates, so I had to laugh when I saw the topic of your blog for today. I need to study this article, and not just because of the chocolates!
I love what you wrote here: "I think Jesus begs the question, “Are you willing to stay awake to spiritual identification long enough to carry it into your daily routine?" That I need to carry my spiritual identification with me at meal times is a wonderful idea and practice. Sometimes, after all the effort of preparing a beautiful, gourmet meal, the spirituality of it is forgotten.Thank you for your needed guidance.

Tamara

3/3/2012 06:42:43 am

Yes, this is a deep approach to this topic! It made me think that it is important to ask about the difference between enjoying a meal with spiritual senses and eating based on the material senses, which can lead to imbalance. What does it mean enjoying something in a spiritual perspective? For example, appreciate the diversity of flavors in a meal can mean the same thing as enjoying a beautiful landscape? If yes, then how it is possible that appreciating good sometimes leads to imbalance? Perhaps the answer to these questions is to recognize what is the true source (God) of the things we enjoy in our daily life.

Michelle Nanouche link

3/3/2012 07:32:04 am

Great thoughts Kathleen and Tamara. Not sure I can thoroughly answer your questions in a comment, Tamara, and perhaps they are questions for each reader to consider for themselves. But I will say, your inquiry brought to mind something in Eddy's Miscellaneous Writings when she wrote about beauty - whch to me could relate to the thrill of a sunset or the delight of a delicious meal - "In our immature sense of spiritual things, let us say of the beauties of the sensuous universe: "I love your promise; and shall know, some time, the spiritual reality and substance of form, light,
and color, of what I now through you discern dimly; and knowing this, I shall be satisfied. Matter is a frail conception of mortal mind; and mortal mind is a poorer representative of the beauty, grandeur, and glory of the immortal Mind."" (p. 87)

I suppose imbalances occur when we substitute and settle for the frail conception, even bowing down to it as a good or bad thing in and of itself, instead of appreciating and reaching for the spiritual reality and substance of form, light and color, (and taste) of how God is good.

Mindlessness when it comes to food, is no better than total absorption in the taste, texture, color and smell of food. Mindlessness and obsession are flip-sides of one coin:hypnotism.

What do you think? Anyone else want to weigh in on the discussion?

Michelle Nanouche link

3/3/2012 07:35:19 am

I just reread what Mrs Eddy wrote. I really like that phrase "...and knowing this, I shall be satisfied."

Knowing it. That is what mealtime offers. Another opportunity to look deeply into what is real.

THIS is cool.

Tamara

3/3/2012 10:10:07 am

I loved your answers! The excerpt of Miscellaneous Writings is really very appropriate to answer these questions.

Michelle Nanouche link

3/3/2012 10:25:17 am

Really grateful you linked appreciating a sunset with enjoying dinner, because it opened up this excerpt from Miscellaneous Writings in a way I hadn't read it before. I never noticed the food link (taste, smell) before! For those who don't have the book, here is another passage on the same page that relates to the discussion. Mary Baker Eddy writes: "What mortals hear, see, feel, taste, smell, constitutes their present earth and heaven: but we must grow out of even this pleasing thraldom, and find wings
to reach the glory of supersensible Life; then we shall soar above, as the bird in the clear ether of the blue temporal sky."

So often I think we try to heal food issues so we will have a pleasurable relationship with food. The goal really is to move beyond that. Who knew?

Oh, and if you DON'T have a copy of Miscellaneous Writings (compiled to help one understand and practice what is in Eddy's primary work of Science and Health), here is the link! It is a must read!

https://m1.buysub.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=15901&productId=609725&catalogId=17403&categoryId=223014

Sue

3/3/2012 08:28:05 am

Have just finished looking at the links - really helpful. Thank you. Real food for thought - if you forgive the pun!

Michelle Nanouche link

3/3/2012 10:26:03 am

Ha! I've been waiting for that pun! :)

Kim

3/3/2012 11:29:34 am

Hi Michelle. What a wonderfully important topic. I love the idea of harmony and balance in eating. I have doing a lot of thinking lately about the weighting between spiritual and material sense. Certainly, we are equipped with our material senses to be able to manuver while in this "earth school", but I have been discovering that when the material outweights the spritual is when things don't go so well. (To put it mildly.) The key for me now is getting more and more weight on the spiritual side and then I know that all will fall into place as it should be. Great stuff!

Michelle Nanouche link

3/3/2012 12:04:54 pm

You are doing great, Kim! That is what Mrs Eddy means when she says she loves the promise, but wants to keep growing out of 'this present thralldom". Putting more weight on the side of Spirit. Great thought!

Kim

3/3/2012 11:31:13 am

Whoops - "maneuver", not "manuver." My English teacher would have been so appalled! :)

Béatrice

3/3/2012 11:46:07 am

I love colors, painting and photographing.. I always thought of the passage in Miscellanous Writings as something positive, and that we grow gradually out of a sensual approach and into a Soul-sense of everything. But now, I am wondering if I am all wrong.
Mary Baker Eddy says on page 326 of Science and Health: All nature teaches God's love to man, but man cannot love God supremely and set his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual.
Now, does that mean, that I should not love our colorful nature anymore? I always thought that the colors were a sign of God's love to man. Could you clarify this for me?

Michelle Nanouche link

3/3/2012 12:02:40 pm

I would say, love it for its promise! But move attention beyond the promise to grow your understanding of spiritual reality and substance. That is what I get from Miscellaneous Writings. In other words, "Oh what a gorgeous sunset" becomes "How great Thou art, Soul!" Moving past the beautiful material sense of something, even past spiritualizing the human sense, to discovering the allness of Spirit, we find a higher satisfaction. We find Truth and substance. Not a coming and going of beauty. not glimpses of it. It's more than seeing spiritually, it is being one with Spirit. It stops being an "out there" beauty. Spirit and its idea IS one. The beauty is you. see where this leads?

Béatrice

3/3/2012 12:32:27 pm

Thank you so much for your quick response! I love what you say, but I am not sure to grasp totally all this involves... I will have to think it through more deeply...
I love this post and I am looking forward to read more about this topic!

Béatrice

3/3/2012 12:52:50 pm

I think I got it! It's about "seeking first the kingdom of God"!! :-)

Michelle Nanouche link

3/3/2012 01:37:10 pm

That is the starting point Jesus gave us! But I think you are right, it is an infinite subject. But isn't it fun to see a new door open to approach it? I am loving this.

Béatrice

3/3/2012 02:02:01 pm

It is indeed infinite - and it IS a joy to see new doors opening! I just suddenly saw this saying of Jesus in a much bigger way than before : God's kingdom everywhere, always and just plain ALL! This implies so much : all being God and His kingdom! I don't know if I can express what I mean. It's a difficult thing sometimes with words...

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