Stopping for Food

I’ve done a lot of long-distance traveling, by car and plane and bus and even running, and one of the things that I enjoy the most while taveling is stopping to eat.  There are a couple of problems with eating while traveling, though.  First of all, many of the places that have food don’t have healthy food–just fast food or junk food, with very few fruits and vegetables or other healthy fare available.  Secondly, if you do want healthy food you often have to stop at a restaurant, which means sitting down, choosing from a menu, getting servings that are often far too large, taking a lot of time, etc., etc., etc.  I don’t eat often in restaurants, mostly because their portions are far too large for me.  It’s not that the food is bad, but it often isn’t very healthy and is much more than I usually eat.

So what does this have to do with my journey through life?  It’s about choices to me–as I’m going through life, I have to seek out nutrients and sustenance.  I need food to nourish myself physically, and when I’m traveling, the food that’s available to me isn’t the best for me.

But what about the nourishment that I need for my spirit?  For my emotions?  For my intellect?  What am I choosing to put into my brain in the form of reading, of music, of films?  What am I feeding my brain and my heart and my spirit?  There’s a whole world of nourishment for my soul out there, and I have to choose what I’m putting into my mind and spirit–no one else can choose that for me.  Am I feeding my spirit with positive, uplifting, creative materials, or am I spending my time perusing negative, degrading, and destructive material?  Am I consciously looking for things that will expand my mind and my perspective, or am I settling for whatever’s in reach, whether or not it helps me to grow into being a better person?

We have to feed ourselves in many different ways.  We have to make our stops for nourishment, or else we simply cease to function.  Likewise, we need to feed our spirits, and we constantly need to decide just what goes in to who we are.  Are we going to settle for the intellectual and spiritual equivalent of fast food or junk food, or are we going to feed ourselves material that will help us to grow into loving, caring, compassionate human beings?  The choice always is ours.