The other night I needed to make dinner fast and used mostly processed, although organic and non-gmo foods.  The meal, while tasty, left me feeling somehow lacking. Like I had duped the guy I had served it to, and who had sung my culinary praises, into thinking he’d eaten. Today I made yellow dal with spinach “from scratch” and felt exactly the opposite:  I couldn’t wait to hear my beloveds acclaim and was genuinely happy to feed his mortal body this particular meal.

made with organic tomatoes from maria’s garden!

I found myself wondering:  why did the two meals create such different feelings inside me?  When have I experienced this difference before between similar things? The answer came quickly:  when I go for my daily walk I feel like I have checked something off my “Holly’s healthy to-do list” but when I do my daily Yoga practice the feeling goes beyond the body/mind and I experience the fullness and the presence of that which unites us all.

Cooking with whole foods versus using pre-packaged, processed ingredients is much like my daily walk versus Yoga: infusing a meal with hand-chosen grains, vegetables and spices allows me to see the whole inherent in the individual and cultivates a feeling of fullness that, while it certainly serves the purpose, a not-from-scratch meal just doesn’t create.

Three cheers for cooking with whole foods and having a spiritual practice for they both do a body (and a mind, heart, spirit) good!

OM Shanti,

Holly