Blog Action Day 2011: Let’s Talk About Food

When I got up this morning, with it being a Sunday, I had pancakes for breakfast of course! And then for lunch, my family and I went up to the beautiful mountains of Aito for lunch in a cozy restaurant, La Roche. We first ordered mezza, and as most of you know nothing tastes better than Lebanese mezza, which is comprised of tabboule, fattush, salad, hummus, baba ghanouj, meat and cheese pastries, kebbe naye, fries, etc… we then had kibbe mishwieh as the main dish and of course, ended our meal with a serving fresh fruits. When I got home that afternoon, I was craving the cheesecake from Zest that we had sitting in our fridge. So as you can see, it was a very good food filled day!

But as I sit at my laptop tonight, I find an unread email from Karina Brisby from Blog Action Day. And I remember, today’s Blog Action Day! I remember writing about Water last year, as that was the topic. And come to think of it, this year’s topic is compatibly, Food!

Food is a number one blessing. Just the fact that we can afford it, make it, order it, or get served it, having food at your hands, in your mouths, in your stomachs, is a blessing.

While up there at La Roche today, a group of people who had just finished from Sunday Mass came in to have lunch at the restaurant, and with them was a priest. Before the group sat down, they asked the priest to bless their table. And they all stood up as he recited biblical lines to them before they ate. They know food is a blessing...

“Dear God, thank you for this food. Bless the hands that prepared it. Bless it to our use and us to your service, and make us ever mindful of the needs of others…”

:-) So the next time you count your blessings, make sure you count food with them. Amen. :-)

Blog Action Day 2010: Water (The Drink & The Home)

My favorite color is blue because of water. I know, water is colorless but the closest color it comes to is blue. And of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, Water has always been my favorite element. It’s not easy to run out of Air, Earth, and Fire as it is to run out of Water. And with the word water, there’s a lot to talk about. Think: water beds, water bottles, water boys, water colors, water coolers, water guns, water melons, etc. But there are two main points about Water that I want to talk about in this post, dedicated to Blog Action Day 2010: Water, the drink, and Water, the home…

As I start writing this post, I’m looking at the glass of water sitting on my desk. They say water is the universal drink of the world. And when you’re thirsty, nothing quenches your thirst as much as water does…

When I was in high school, I helped form an environmental club, called “Preservers of the Green.” We helped raise awareness about the environment and organized clean up campaigns both at school and out. I remember one of my favorite plans we came up with was to go to one of the islands off the coast of El Mina, and clean it up. We took a boat ride and cleaned up as much trash as we could, and I remembered we gathered a LOT of trash. It was a great effort…

You see cleaning an island is a part of cleaning the sea. I was at the beach (yes, in October!) and after a stormy Saturday, all the garbage that people had thrown into the sea had been washed ashore, and it was all sickening: plastic bags, plastic plates and cups, wrappers, food particles, and even what looked like feces. It’s really sad; the sea is NOT a dump…

I think one of the reasons I feel strongly about this is because the sea is the home to my favorite cetaceans: dolphins and whales. Just look at this blog, look at my room, all you’ll see is the color blue, dolphins and whales, sea shells, the water, and all that comes with it…

CONSERVE IT! A couple of simple steps: don’t keep the faucet turned on while brushing your teeth, make sure the taps are closed and not dripping when you’re not using them, take showers instead of baths, and of course, don’t throw trash into the ocean.