Dinner in Silence

[ Five or six weeks ago, we started to eat the post-meditation dinner in silence. Here is a related thought on mindful eating ... ]

"As a personal or family ritual, have a meal in silence from time to time. Often the pressures of daily life can make meals a stressful routine. Or we can can get so caught up in all the events of the day that we forget to take the time to enjoy our food. The tendency is to hurry through dinner so we can then dash off to the evening's activities. We often rush through meals, talking a mile a minute and later don't even remember what we ate, or how it tasted. Rather than mindlessly diving into the food, you could geniunely but silently express your own gratitude for the meal, and accept on an inner as well as a physical level the benefits of the sustenance it will provide. Then make a point of being aware of the food, and of savoring each bite.

It's amazing how much you can hear when no one is saying anything."

--Elaine St. James in 'Inner Simplicity'