Dao at the Dining Table

I found my body at the dining room table

as her tongue probed the pockets of her gums,

digging out every morsel of food

brought to her lips by a hand that has been with her for 22 years.

This food that was cooked for her by a mother who taught her how to eat

with applesauce and choo-choo trains.

I found my body in the heat of delight

in its discovery of the Outer Radiance 

of the Dao.

A vegan cheddar broccoli soup, just one of many dishes my mom made for Thanksgiving dinner this year.

Mom teaching my fiancé how to make blueberry jam. We have stacks of her jam to enjoy throughout the year, including the apple and pear butters we so loved this holiday season.

I started listening to chapters from John Minford’s translation of Tao Te Ching every morning at the end of 2020. The first chapter, titled “Gateway to All Marvels” (read it here) is a beautiful thought that explains how Daoists do not deny or distance themselves from sense perceptions, but rather, use them as opportunities to discover the Dao (or, roughly, the natural order and “way” of the universe). Minford ends his translation with the quote, “It is Contemplation that gives spiritual significance to objects of sense.”

This chapter especially stood out to me, as I had just realized at Christmas dinner how much I had to be thankful for in my mother’s cooking. She cooked a lot this holiday season, stirring love into her sweet potato rolls to make them rise, beating nourishment into her pumpkin pie to thicken it up, and even coming to my rescue with towels and positivity as the jelly roll cake I had made in a not-jelly-roll pan crumbled into a cake and buttercream casserole.

We often interpret ourselves and food as mere objects.

Mom hard at work making a rhubarb apple pie this spring. She loves novelty and tradition alike!

All too often, I have categorized the foods prepared for me by my loved ones by either the number of calories I estimate them to contain or by the binary of “good” and “bad.” As many of us know, this sucks the joy out of a holiday dinner more quickly than any burnt turkey or cake-turned-casserole.

But when we change our perspectives and view our bodies as vessels for our souls to learn and appreciate the true nature of the world, and when we view each item of food that we taste as an opportunity to be reminded of the countless hands, hearts, and natural forces that have come together to grow, transport, sell, and prepare the meals that nourish us, we no longer feel that negativity towards our bodies or plates.

Enjoying food does not make you gluttonous.

It makes you a blessed soul with an opportunity to grow.