A Buncha Nuts And Physics!

Been a while since I actually wrote. I have been focusing on finding my “voice” again. The Podcast is going well and I think after a couple practice runs, I am comfortable doing live guests.

I wanted to stop by and say hello. I also wanted to share an experience that I recently had with my children (2 yrs/4yrs) regarding meditation. I looted our fam-mobile one day after work and in doing so, I found some honey roasted cashews that my wife happened upon on one of her work expeditions. Upon further inspection, I ALSO found a can of mixed honey roasted nuts in the car…..and began the “crave”.

That evening, I had mentioned that I came across them. My wife, being the wonderful enabler of edible delectables, decided she would treat me by retrieving the nuts from our car. I informed the kids over dinner that we would have a special snack after dinner, during our wind down time, as long as they paid attention and listened to me. This instance was “nuts” to say the least.

After KHatz left for work, I retrieved the can of nuts from the kitchen, and the kids and I had a 10 minute observation, discussion and observation of each nut in the can. In our case, there were Brazil nuts, cashews, peanuts, pecans and almonds. We tried each one a few times throughout this experience. We started with Brazil nuts, and the kids did not care much for them. We proceeded to test each one as a snack run through, then things got a little creative.

On the second pass of each nut that we consumed, we talked about them. #Rennytok loves almonds, which I did not know until this experiment. #RudyTheRutabega prefers cashews. GBH is a Pecan guy!

Alas, we spoke of the texture, the taste, the color of each morsel. What we liked and did not like. What we “think” the shell looked like for each one. We spoke of what we would pair them with amongst other fun stuff. At the end, without realizing, we had completed an eating meditation and it was a remarkable experience.

Now, the concept of an eating meditation goes widely beyond what we had done, but it was a good introduction for the kids to try something new including turning off the television and having an experience together. We took the time, to HAVE an experience, as opposed to forcing or scheduling something. Difficult enough with a group of adults; sometimes a spontaneous meditation is just as excellent as something pre-determined. No eyes closed or anything like that-just an appreciation for each bite we took. It was a remarkable adventure for the kids and myself and gave us some time to not only appreciate each other-but respect our consumption.

I think in total, we each ate about 20 nuts. Right around a full serving for each of us. It was a great experiment in time management and self control. I strongly recommend attempting something such as this in your endeavors if you want something new to add to your practice.

Until our paths cross…..Stay Strong; Stay Focused; Stay SOBER!

-gbh