One more thing for the New Year

We may be reaching a tipping point. The ideas here are ones that have been part of my thinking for a long time. Yet the larger world's focus seemed to be more on the "celebrity" nature of food and access to it than on its most basic sustenance-giving aspects. It is good to see that all the challenges we face in our economy and our world are causing people to reflect on what is necessary and important, not only to themselves, but to the larger community.

Here's to 2012 in an Edible Communities year end story.

Early resolutions

A new year is just around the corner. The speed with which each year flies by is frightening and while it seems there is nothing to be done to change it, if I'm truly honest, I think I can dial it down another few notches. And in anticipation of 2012, plan to make conscious choices about what I do as well as what and how I eat. I know for sure that I am going to:

• Take the time to set the table for dinner and sit down, every night. When a friend talked about doing this in the past year I first thought that it seemed a waste to do for just one. Yet, it is about savoring the meal and respecting one's self in the process. Rather than standing at the sink and shoveling the food in so that the next thing can be tackled, there is something really appealing about being at the table where my father's family ate their meals growing up. It's a tiny connection to a past that I never knew as well as a way to slow down my eating and do my digestive system a favor. 
• Pay more attention to what I eat. While I've always considered myself a pretty healthy eater, a quick perusal of a bakery label let me know that I need to watch more closely. Thinking that a small bakery would be attuned to the idea of using quality ingredients, I went to get some rolls for a dinner I had recently. I was surprised to find partially hydroginated oil in every item...something I had been avoiding since the mid 1990's when I first learned of it. I was equally surprised to find healthily made rolls at my local grocery store's bakery...they contained none of the bad stuff and whole grain to boot. Big doesn't automatically mean bad. Small doesn't automatically mean good.
• The honest truth is that I eat less when I eat with others. Not because I'm inhibited - well, maybe a little - but because for me, conversation over a meal feeds a part of me that no food item can. So in 2012 I'm going to have friends over more often for meals. The combination of food and friends is a heady one that I'm going to enjoy and maybe I'll be able to drop a few pounds in the process.

My hope is that 2012 is just a more vivid, deeper and healthier version of 2011, which - even with all the bad - was a pretty good year. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and finds nourishment and happiness in 2012!