This may or may not surprise people who read this blog, especially if they are Christian, but I do still say blessings over my food before I eat it. Due to living in a house of Christians, this is usually a silent blessing, or one said as I am cooking the meal each evening. (I’m the one who gets to do the cooking around here.)
Now the thing is, after reading a post over at Autumn Twilight, I began to think about the blessing I said over the food as I prepared the food, or prepared to consume the food. Traditionally I had been thanking the Goddess for the bounty of the Earth and the God of the Hunt for his assistance in bringing the meat to our table. But after reading this post at Autumn Twilight, in which the author wrote about Sacrifice, it made me stop and think. Do we ever stop to thank the spirits of the plants and animals we are consuming when we have a meal?
Most plants we consume (carrots, corn, soybeans, etc) are one year plants. Once they have been harvested, they are dead and gone. Our meat is basically a lifetime commitment for the animal the produced it. So are we thanking the spirits of those plants and animals that nourish our bodies? Nine times out of ten, I would be willing to bet we don’t.
Do you thank the spirits of the plants and animals that nourish our bodies, as well as the Goddess and God for providing for us? Or do you simply thank the Goddess and God and believe that is sufficient for your needs?