Recently, I had the opportunity to hear Shawn Nelson speak at Cannonball Moments. Shawn challenged us to ask ourselves, “What do I love.” He didn’t want your typical response of: my family, my job, world peace…no, he wanted us to dig deep and do some cognitive heavy lifting.
In the room I wrote down: FOOD
At first I thought, “Well, food because it’s delicious. Who doesn’t like food? Food makes me happy.”
Then I thought, “Well, I don’t just enjoy food by myself. I would prefer to share food with people I like/love.”
“When I travel, food is how I learn about the local culture. From the different spices I taste, I can paint a picture of how a culture was built for myself.”
“When I first meet someone I pay attention to what they eat, how they eat, and from there I start to formulate my thoughts about who they are.”
I continued to peel back the layers of my love for food. Layer by layer I discovered that what I truly love is deep honest connections. In my experience, people lie, books lie, facts can be misinterpreted.
However, I trust what I can learn of people and the world through food. When made with great care and love, food is the purest form of connection to another person or another place. Even when food is made carelessly or without emotion, I can taste that as well.
Learning this, I realize everything I do in life is in the pursuit of a deep honest connection with the world around me.
