But it seems we live in a crazy world where the food that goes into their bodies isn’t anywhere near as healthy as it should be. Breakfast foods that aren’t really food don’t prepare the children for a good day of learning at school. McDonald’s meals might not provide the healthiest balance of ingredients that they need. Many kids refuse to eat the foods that Mom & Dad know they should eat. What can a parent do?
Sometimes kids are kept out of the kitchen to be out of the way for their own safety. I used to worry when I heard that my little girl was peeling carrots in her Montessori classroom but she showed me at home, standing on a chair at the sink because she was so short, that she could safely handle a peeler and a carrot. She learned to cook standing on a chair by the stove, with me close by. Bring a child into the kitchen with you and teach her to use a recipe to prepare something delicious.
But it’s not just food, is it, that is harming our kids? We need to understand how complicated life is in this 21st Century. We’re all breathing air that is less than perfect for our bodies. We all have to drink water and we pay huge amounts to try to get healthier water that doesn’t have chlorine or fluoride or bacteria in it but that does have the minerals we need. I tried to get an ice cream cone in London from an American chain and was told they don’t carry Rocky Road because the ingredients are genetically-modified, not allowed to be imported there. How many food products are we eating that contain molecules of pesticide in them? And we don’t even know the answer because we have no way to find out.
So Conscious Living would require us to pay attention to what goes into our bodies and the bodies of the children in our lives. Do you know the source of the food you eat, the water you drink? Have you paid attention to the air quality in your area?
For some people this will spur them into political action to demand that their environment and what they take into their bodies is as healthy as they can get it. For some it will become a crusade to make sure that they and their family are careful about these things. I’m hoping that some will think about areas of the world where the people are desperate for anything to eat or drink and where help is needed in meeting the simplest of requirements for life.
We in the Western World have the luxury of examining the chemical content of our food while there are many on Earth who would love to have that concern. Let’s be careful about what we eat and drink and the air we breathe while we also do something about all those children who have nothing to eat, no clean water to drink. Maybe we can achieve a balance so that this wonderful Mother Earth can provide sustenance for all her children, healthy sustenance that keeps them all alive and healthy and thriving to advance humanity into evolved consciousness.

BOOK LIGHTS: His Holiness the Dalai Lama in “The Path to Tranquility”
February 3, 2010 — Rosemary