Let’s Eat

Two of the best words ever are “Let’s eat.” Of course, any words that have to do with eating are pleasurable, but compared with other phrases also involving food and meal time, “Let’s eat” is the best in my opinion.

Why? “Let’s eat” implies you are eating with someone else, that there is a shared experience.

Eating by myself is one of the sad parts of living alone. I don’t usually enjoy cooking in the first place, but without anyone to share meals, it made not only meals, but even the cooking experience worse.

Every Moment Holy has a liturgy to pray Before a Meal Eaten Alone. The first time I read it, sitting at my small drop leaf table, an empty chair across from me and an uninteresting meal in front of me (which I hadn’t had much motivation to cook), I nearly cried.

“You created us for companionship…so it is not unnatural that we should taste a particular sorrow when eating a meal alone.”

I already knew I disliked eating alone, but reading this prayer phrased as a lament, really hit hard. This unnatural practice and particular sorrow wasn’t just occasional, but 90% of my meals. That was something worthy of lament!

However, the liturgy continued with reminders of God’s presence with us and also encouragement to look around to the needs of others.

“Let me sometimes be the reason the loneliness of another is relieved. Meet me now in my own loneliness, O Lord.”

Last week, a new housemate moved it! I am so thankful as it has been more than a year and a half since I started looking for someone to move in with me. One of the things I am most excited about is having more opportunities to eat and cook with someone else. For both myself and others who are in similar lonely situations, I also made it one of my new year’s goals to have people over for a meal at least once a month.

To my family and friends who invite me over for dinner and even coworkers who simply sit with me on your lunch break, thank you so much! You may not have realized how much it means to me.

Photo by Stefan Vladimirov on Unsplash