How has Primal affected your Dinner Prayer? page 3

[DashFire]

Knifegill. Thanks for posing this question. Thinking about it, realize I generally don't prayer over meals unless with friends from church. Maybe because while I was certainly appreciative of the blessing of food, even SAD food, there was some guilt, because part of me knew it just wasn't good for me, or the best that HE had to offer. But now, that's changed. So, time to give this another go. Will report back.

[Paleobird]

Unwashed heathen here who doesn't feel the need to pray to any deity. That said, I do think there is some merit in taking a moment before everyone starts stuffing their faces to just appreciate each other's company, being alive and together with such good food.

[zoebird]

Zoebird - my cousins went to Waldorf schools (Loheland Stiftung, 36093 Kuenzell, Germany). I am assuming you have children who did/do attend? Sometime, I would like to know how you get around the concept of grains being the superior food thing from Steiner. I own books in German on this topic.

(Sorry for taking a bender off-topic... otherwise I have wonderful memories of their festivals, find the architecture breathtaking, and am still intrigued by many of Steiner's ideas.)

I don't worry about it.

Steiner has a lot of really interesting ideas, and I have read a bit about the concept of food/seeds/what not, but that doesn't mean I have to agree with everything, you know?

A lot of the children who attend waldorf school are GF these days, many are vegetarian/vegan, but most are WAPF whole-foodies. Being paleo isn't that much different.

That being said, they make gluten free bread each week as his kindy, and I'm happy to have him make it and happy if he wants to eat it. It's not that big of a deal to me in the grand scheme of things.

For me, the steiner education is beneficial because it deals with the whole child and the overall pedagogy is healthy (imo). the school is very conscious of DS's temperament (all fire!), and they really respect his temperament. In any other schooling environment, he'd be punished like crazy just for being his normal, passionate self. They also are good at balancing temperaments in a classroom setting, as well as meeting unique learning styles through their curriculum. I also like their focus on nature and the natural world (and natural products/toys/learning supplies).

We have a relatively "waldorf-ish" home. I keep the home painted in muted tones, we keep the toys to a minimum and have as many made of natural things as we can (sometimes people give us plastic toys, which DS subsequently destroys and we pitch). And, he helps to cook, to tidy, to garden. We sing a couple of times a day, have reading times (i don't do well with story times, but we try to do it), and now we also do the nichiren liturgy, which has been positive for both DS and I (DH doesn't really care, and most mornings he's out before we do it anyway). We are also "media light" with DS -- books, some time on his computer games (star fall reading game, technically a waldorf no-no, but he loves it), and a few hours of tv (cooking shows or glee) or cartoons (bob the builder on youtube) at week. Between 1 and 3 depending upon the week.

So, there are differences between a "regular" home (as he sees when he goes to many of his friend's homes who are in different schooling styles and different parenting styles) and our home, and also the differences between our home, kindy, and more "waldorfy" families than ours.

[Ida!]

that's a really great question! we never used to pray before dinner (when we were vegans!) but now we say a thank you prayer to the animal that gave it's life for us!

[carlh]

I think I'm genuinely more thankful now for steak and awesome veggies than a plateful of pasta with a side of bread. Not just for steak but for all the amazing varieties of food that I'm now more aware of than ever when I don't have grains wasting space on my plate.

[tanstaafl]

We pray before each meal and it hadn't occurred to me to change anything but I like the idea of acknowledging the cow or chicken's life. I will have to think on this. Thanks for the idea.
And to all the heathens...Repent!
Sorry, I couldn't resist.