Homegrown Texan

That's what Nathan said this morning after he and Michael had sang a blessing on their breakfast, which goes something like this:
Blessings on the blossoms
Blessings on the roots
Blessings on the leaves and stems
Blessings on the fruits

Yes, one of the things they are learning from their Waldorf education is to take time to appreciate the food they are eating.  Which I think is a good thing.   I'm not particularly religious, and for me traditional prayer in the form of talking out loud to God doesn't really work.  It doesn't make me uncomfortable for others to do it, but for me to lead my family that way would be entirely fake.  So I've pretty much neglected this aspect (prayers before meals) because I wasn't sure how to structure it in a non-formal-prayer fashion.  I like what the school is doing in this regard, and I like that it forces everyone to take time to think about what a blessing a meal is.    (And besides, their little voices singing this stuff sounds darn cute!).  Plus it's a tradition, and I like traditions, even though, again, I'm having a difficult time figuring out how to establish them since I'm not religious at all, and most traditions we have in this country are at a minimum loosely based on religion.  I'm getting there, though.  Waldorf has some good ideas that we're incorporating (have only gone through one year, so I can't call anything a tradition, yet).

Of course, when my dad, Mr. Meatatarian was here (not that I don't enjoy a good steak or burger), his immediate comment was "what about 'blessings on the cows and chickens...'?"  I told him to leave the kids alone; there are a lot of vegetarians/vegans at their school and while I have no plans on joining their ranks, I don't need the kids offending them, either.  (He was teasing, by the way).