So with Thanksgiving behind us and a whole lot of us not feeling all that grateful I have decided to take some drastic measures. After yet another meal of children saying, “I don’t like this” or, “Can I have some cereal instead?” I decided that I would have our children eat for at least a week of dinners what other people around the world eat: rice and beans. Tonight’s dinner was amazing. We had black beans and rice with some homemade whole wheat tortillas (our kids burned through 2 dozen) a plate of carrots from our garden and one orange cut into six slices. I said a blessing on the food that went something like this: “We are so thankful for this meal, for the beans and rice that are so healthy and filling, for the carrots that came from our garden and for the abundant land where we live, we thank thee for the orange that has come from so far to give us vitamin C and for the tortillas. We are thankful that no one has allergies to wheat and that we can eat all of this and be filled. We are thankful for this clean water that came from our faucet and that we didn’t have to walk for miles down to a river to get it…at this point the kids were all snickering and I could no longer restrain myself. I laughed too and then exclaimed, “What? I’m being serious! I AM grateful for all of these things! ” Then I wrapped up my prayer and we ate. That is the amazing part. We ate! ALL OF US!! Lizzie glowered for a few minutes and then with a resigned air ate her food. Sammy, being the good sport that he is said thank-you every few minutes (while eating half the tortillas) Anna and William ate without complaint. (Even after finding out they couldn’t drown their carrots in ranch)
Maybe this is the answer? I don’t really know. I told our children that so many people in the world live so simply. One in seven people are undernourished. The amazing thing is with our simple dinner we still had a fresh fruit and vegetable and plenty of food. No one was still hungry when dinner was over. It is this type of awareness I want to instill in our children. They have no idea how lucky we are. Indeed, I think truly I have no idea how lucky we are. I guess we shall wait and see. As for the name, “Cafe Gratitude”, I put a sign up on the door “Welcome to the Cafe Gratitude” for Sam and Lizzie to see as the walked in after school. They knew immediately that the day of reckoning had arrived!
(Incidently, there is a Cafe Gratitude restaurant in L.A. that serves organic, vegan, locally grown food.)
Leave a Reply