I had one of the best dinners of my life last night. No, I didn\’t take a photo. It didn\’t seem all that remarkable when I sat down to eat it. It\’s a meal I\’ve had before-A persimmon, goat cheese, crackers, and grapes. These were run-of-the-mill normal foods from Costco Ok, sure, these two fruits happen to be at their delectable autumn prime, but I\’ve been enjoying them all week. This was the Sunday snack I was eating because I\’d overstuffed myself at lunch with Qdoba. I sat down expecting a little bite to tide me over till morning and it blew me away. An amazing meal that didn\’t even include wine!
I think I might be able to credit French Women Don\’t Get Fat for making a mundane meal amazing. Over the last month I\’ve slowly been retraining my taste buds at Mireille Guiliano\’s advice. She emphasizes things like chewing slowly, eating without distraction (No reading at dinner. Sigh.), learning to enjoy selecting and preparing food–these were all things I thought I did until I started paying closer attention to my actual habits.
I\’m finding food treasures in my local Fred Meyer that I didn\’t know were there because I didn\’t spend time looking. (Who knew Freddy\’s had a staff person whose job it is to taste and recommend cheeses??) I\’m finding more pleasure in foods I\’ve always eaten because I\’m not constantly eating food that only dulls my sense of taste just to fill my stomach. I love food–fresh, local food, even. I love to cook. These are not new concepts to me. The mistake was in thinking knowing was enough for doing. Practice is opening a whole new world of food for me. Who knew that I needed to practice eating right?
I think the spiritual parallels are obvious (and possibly even part of this process. God made food and he made it delicious, after all). Blessings are all around. When I practice tasting God, it is not my environment that changes, but my capacity to enjoy the goodness that has always been there.
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
Psalm 34:8
