Feeding the hungry: including our spiritual, emotional and psychological needs and desires
| If it is bread that you seek, you will have bread. If it is the soul you seek, you will find the soul. If you understand this secret, you know you are that which you seek. ― Rumi Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new. — Ursula Le Guin water water water wind water … across the land shape of a torn heart … inside the divine spiral there is a voice, inside the voice there is light … — Juan Felipe Herrera |
| Songs about Food, Fishing & Hunger:Hunger by Florence + The Machine (pop) Them Belly Full But We Hungry by Bob Marley and the Wailers (raggae) I’m Going Hungry by Pearl Jam (rock) Just Fishin’ by Trace Adkins (country) Catfish Boogie by Tennessee Ford (country) With Every Wish by Bruce Springsteen (rock) Hungry For Your Love by Van Morrison (rock) Stay Hungry by Talking Heads (rock) Catch All the Fish by Brad Paisley (country) Biscuits by Kacey Musgrave (country) Thank God I’m a Country Boy by John Denver (country folk) Hunger for the Great Light by Dave Matthews Band (rock) Fishin’ In the Dark by Nitty Gritty (country) Hunger by Fergie featuring Rick Ross (rock/rap) We Are Hungry by Jesus Culture (Christian) Hunger by David & Nicole Binion (Christian) A Cup of Coffee, a Sandwich and You by Jack Buchanan & Gertrude Lawrence (vintage/crooning) Huntin’ Fishin’ and Lovin’ by Luke Bryan (country) I Eat Dinner by Kate & Anna McGarrigle (celtic/Irish pop ballad) Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran (rock) Te Quero Mais by Andre Valadao (Christian) Hunger by Of Monsters and Men (ballad pop) It’s My Lazy Day by Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard (country) Perfect by Ed Sheeran with Andrea Bocelli (pop) The Hunger by Bat for Lashes (pop/ballad) Honey, Honey by ABBA (pop) We Hunger & Thirst by Sovereign Music (evangelical Christian) A Taste of Honey by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass (instrumental jazz) Wild Honey Pie by The Beatles (rock) Love of the Common People by John Denver (country folk rock) Oatmeal in the Water by Ben Howard (rock ballad) Sugar by Maroon 5 (pop) Hunger by The Score (rock) Are You Hungry? by Kid Songs (children’s songs) Mango Tree by Zac Brown Band (jazz/rock) Far From the Arms of Hunger by Jackson Browne (ballad) Catfish by Bob Dylan (rock) Love Hungry Man by AC/DC (rock) From Blossoms By Li-Young Lee From blossoms comes this brown paper bag of peaches we bought from the boy at the bend in the road where we turned toward signs painted Peaches. From laden boughs, from hands, from sweet fellowship in the bins, comes nectar at the roadside, succulent peaches we devour, dusty skin and all, comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat. O, to take what we love inside, to carry within us an orchard, to eat not only the skin, but the shade, not only the sugar, but the days, to hold the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into the round jubilance of peach. There are days we live as if death were nowhere in the background; from joy to joy to joy, from wing to wing, from blossom to blossom to impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom. MEDITATIONS on BREAD We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. — Viktor E. Frankl The piece of bread is an ambassador of the cosmos offering nourishment and support. — Thich Nhat Hahn Bread for myself is a material question. Bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one. — Nikolai Berdyaev Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread. — Richard Wright In the Lord’s Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach. — Woodrow Wilson There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. — Mahatma Gandhi Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all. — Nelson Mandela There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk. — M. F. K. Fisher Sense the blessings of the earth in the perfect arc of a ripe tangerine, the taste of warm, fresh bread, the circling flight of birds, the lavender color of the sky shining in a late afternoon rain puddle, the million times we pass other beings in our cars and shops and out among the trees without crashing, conflict, or harm. — Jack Kornfield It is not accidental that all phenomena of human life are dominated by the search for daily bread – the oldest link connecting all living things, man included, with the surrounding nature. — Ivan Pavlov We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. — Viktor E. Frankl We light the oven so that everyone may bake bread in it … If I survive, I will spend my whole life at the oven door seeing that no one is denied bread and, so as to give a lesson of charity, especially those who did not bring flour. — Jose Marti Truth is, I think, if God just gave us our daily bread, many of us would be angry. ‘That’s all you’re going to give me? You’re just going to give me enough to sustain me for today? What about tomorrow or next year or 10, 20, 30 years from now? I want to know that I’m set up.’ And yet Jesus says just pray for your daily provisions. — Francis Chan You can’t just leave out one part; the bread won’t rise if the yeast isn’t there. — Holly Near I like reality. It tastes like bread. — Jean Anouilh To each other, we were as normal and nice as the smell of bread. We were just a family. — John Irving We believe that salvation is to be found in wholesome work in a beloved land. Work will provide our people with the bread of tomorrow, and moreover, with the honor of the tomorrow, the freedom of the tomorrow. — Theodor Herzl Music I heard with you was more than music, and bread I broke with you was more than bread. — Conrad Aiken For one country is different from another; its earth is different, as are its stones, wines, bread, meat, and everything that grows and thrives in a specific region. — Paracelsus When you fight to give your family bread, that’s not passion anymore: that’s conviction. — Yoel Romero When we cast our bread upon the waters we can presume that someone downstream whose face we will never know will benefit from our action, as we who are downstream from another will profit from the grantor’s gift. — Maya Angelou Bread for myself is a material question. Bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one. – Nikoli Berdyaev When the children of Israel were suffering from hunger and thirst, Moses prayed to God and God answered his prayers with food from heaven. The Qur’an says: “And We caused the clouds to comfort you with their shade, and sent down unto you manna and quails. [saying,]’Partake of the good things which We have provided for you as sustenance’” (2:57). — Muhammad Shafiq WATER MEDITATIONS Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it. — Lao Tzu For true love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow. — Antoine de Saint-Exupery All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. — Toni Morrison The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive. — Thich Nhat Hahn When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy. — Rumi Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. — W. H. Auden In a state of grace, the soul is like a well of limpid water, from which flow only streams of clearest crystal. Its works are pleasing both to God and man, rising from the River of Life, beside which it is rooted like a tree. — Saint Teresa of Avila The atmosphere, the earth, the water and the water cycle – those things are good gifts. The ecosystems, the ecosphere, those are good gifts. We have to regard them as gifts because we couldn’t make them. We have to regard them as good gifts because we couldn’t live without them. — Wendell Berry I have dreamed in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind. — Emily Bronte Being on a boat that’s moving through the water, it’s so clear. Everything falls into place in terms of what’s important and what’s not. — James Taylor I think love is the greatest force in the universe. It’s shapeless like water. It only takes the shape of things it becomes. — Guillermo del Toro Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does. ― Margaret Atwood In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of You are found all the aspects of existence. ― Kahlil Gibran The ocean was the best place, of course … It was a feeling of freedom like no other, and yet a feeling of communion with all the other places and creatures the water touched. ― Ann Brashares Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time?” That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future. ― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha No water, no life. No blue, no green. — Sylvia Earle The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea. — Isak Dinesen If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. — Loren Eiseley Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams – they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do – they all contain truths. — Muhammad Ali Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth… these are one and the same fight. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security and women’s empowerment. Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all. — Ban Ki-moon Water is the driving force of all nature. — Leonardo da Vinci |
Reflections on idols & advocacy: Moses standing in the breach
In Exodus, Moses stood between Israel and G-d, when his people lost hope & trust and made an golden calf idol and G-d threatened to destroy them; Moses defended them and even made demands of G-d. Who do you identify with in this story? For whom will each of us speak? And what will we demand of G-d? Meanwhile, what idols are getting between us and our spiritual wellbeing, our connection to G-d, community and creation?
We will all assemble and we will build them back
And rush to save the lives remaining still within our reach
And try to put our world together standing in the breachSo many live in poverty while others live as kings
Though some may find peace
In the acceptance of all that living brings
I will never understand however they’ve prepared
How one life may be struck down and another life be sparedAnd though the earth may tremble and cast our works aside
And though our efforts resemble the fluctuating tide
We rise and fall with the trust and belief
That love redeems us each
And bend our backs and hearts together standing in the breach
You don’t know why it’s such a far cry
From the world this world could be
You don’t know why but you still try
For the world you wish to see
You don’t know how it will happen now
After all that’s come undone
But you know the change the world needs now
Is there, in everyone
The unpaid debts of history
The open wounds of time
The laws of human nature always tugging from behind
I want to think that the earth can heal
And that people might still learn
How to meet this world’s true challenges
And that the course we’re on could turn
And though the earth may tremble and the oceans pitch and rise
We will all assemble and we will lift our eyes
To the tasks that we know lie before us
And the power our prayers beseech
And cast our souls into the heavens, standing in the breach
You don’t know why it’s such a far cry
From the world this world could be
You don’t know why but you still try
For the world you wish to see
You don’t know how it’s going to happen now
After all that’s come undone
And you know the world you’re waiting for may not come
No it may not come
But you know the change the world needs now
Is there, in everyone
Idols Like Golden Calves: Feeding our Hungers
The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly human goal. — Pope Francis
You get your intuition back when you make space for it, when you stop the chattering of the rational mind. The rational mind doesn’t nourish you. You assume that it gives you the truth, because the rational mind is the golden calf that this culture worships, but this is not true. Rationality squeezes out much that is rich and juicy and fascinating. — Anne Lamott
It happened, you see, after the war, when I saw people making money while the others were dying in the trenches. You saw it and you couldn’t do anything about it. Then later I was at the League of Nations, and there I saw the light. I really saw the world was ruled by the Golden Calf, by Mammon! Oh, no kidding! Implacably. Social consciousness certainly came to me late. — Louis Ferdinand Céline
God’s green earth can no longer sustain itself for those who worship the golden calf. Those who have put this planet in jeopardy shall no longer live. We have been working hard for this day to come and we have help from every God-fearing being on this planet. Many will say they believe, when in their hearts, they truly worship Mammon. — Stephen Biro
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. — Winston Churchill
When we speak we are afraid our words are not welcomed. But when we are silent we are still afraid. So it is better to speak. — Audre Lorde
Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on. — Thurgood Marshall
Great thoughts speak only to the thoughful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind. — Theodore Roosevelt
I speak not for myself but for those without a voice. … those who have fought for their rights … their right to live in peace, their right to be treated with dignity, their right to equality of opportunity, their right to be educated. — Malala Yousafzai
As an immigrant, I chose to live in America because it is one of the freest and most vibrant nations in the world. And as an immigrant, I feel an obligation to speak up for immigration policies that will keep America the most robust, creative and freedom-loving nation in the world. — Rupert Murdoch