How do you interact with food? Is your relationship to it a sensual, nourishing one? I admit mine is complicated. While a teenager, I found food to be a great source of love, whether the nourishing type or a drug, and the drugged sugar-high often won out.  Combine that chemical addiction with a dancer’s need of physical perfection and it became a perfect storm of conflict. But out of conflict grows a desire for change and growth. Where there was once a daily reckoning of my goodness and badness, now there is a deeper understanding of what a healthy relationship with food looks and feels like. It is definitely a daily dance. How appropriate!

The study of nourishment is multi-layered, and in the end, has more to do with the mind and spirit than just the physical body. I learned so much from the study of Ayurvedic Medicine, the ancient yogic practice of self-care which highlights dietary choices for better balance. It is the knowledge and weaving of our essential self with Nature’s gift of food, remembered in each bite, that brings us into balanced relationship. Ingesting and assimilating food is a metaphor for how we do the same in other aspects of life. Simply pausing to appreciate the sight, smell and texture of a meal goes a long way.

I found this mural in a small cafe in the Dominican Republic and love the fluid dance of celebration with what could be the sun and the moon and the sea. Or two eggs and an orange along with a cluster of seagrass and grapes. It invites me to interact with Nature’s gifts sensitively and creatively, saying that I can be an artist daily in a ritual of digestion. This dancer asks, “What kind of love are you stirring up today?” Nourishment is love and love is nourishment. Just food for thought…