Feeding With Love

For the first time ever, I’m combining the Food and Inspire sections. Next week I have a great Jesscipe planned, but this week I’m brimming with excitement about this combo post.

Through the magic of social media, I came across a local community food project in Brooklyn. A few artists (Brooklyn is spilling over with all sorts of creatives) got together to paint refrigerators, situate them throughout the boroughs (Queens also), and have the local neighborhoods fill them with donated food. Whoever needs can come take with dignity and privacy. Neighbors drop off dairy items, produce, pre cooked meals, and local restaurants donate leftover food. I was incredibly inspired by this grassroots initiative. It’s not about a checkbook, a journal ad, sitting at the Platinum table, or getting dolled up to attend a charity function where everyone knows what everyone else gave financially. This is pure and humble giving, with a sensitive awareness to the fact that people in our own backyards are hungry and struggling. I’m sure that things like this have existed before covid, but there has been a massive increase in how the world has been asked to widen the collective lens during this intense pandemic. Everything has been seriously magnified over the past year (a whole year!!!); need, hunger, poverty, racism, anti Semitism, isolation, frustration, death, loss, sickness, anxiety, loss of income, interpersonal relationships, our relationships to ourselves, self reflection, just to name a few. We have been dragged to a giant reflecting pool in which we aren’t just looking back at our own faces, but at the faces of the global collective. If there has ever been a time of forced expansion, this, dear friends, is it. I come from a background of service. My family, and the Jewish community at large, is wired to help. We are generous, which is why we have sustained ourselves throughout the course of history. However, and there are psychological survival reasons for this, our powerful resources have mostly been used to serve our own. This is not a bad thing, and frankly, we haven’t had a choice. Looking out for the needs within our own community has been a vital necessity. The public opinion of all Jews swimming in money is ignorant and untrue. Many Jewish people struggle, starve, and need just like everyone else. We bleed and we cry, too. Coming to the aid of my Jewish brothers and sisters has been taught to me since day one. It’s an education and training I’m deeply grateful for. It has set the stage for me to now expand my circle of giving, and give in ways close to my heart. Ways in which I can feed my soul, which is why I love to serve through actual food. The thought of anyone being hungry and not being able to feed their families kills me. Basics like food, safety, clean water, warmth, clean air, and education are essential human needs and rights. In America, a country of immense wealth and excess, it is unacceptable and inexcusable for any person living here to be deprived of these things. During this past year I have read sickening facts and statistics about pockets of our country in which these basic life rights are not provided. This has existed forever; I just didn’t know about it because it never occurred to me to see beyond my own four walls. My life and lens are so different now. As I began to change my whole life several years ago, everything began to shift. The more I slowly started to pry myself open, and commit to that continued prying, my capacity to see things clearly grew exponentially. The more I saw myself with awareness, clarity, love, and empathy, the more I could do this with my children, my inner circle, and now my growing outer circle. The whole world is all of our outer circle. A circle is a continuous shape that lacks sharp edges corners in which to hide in. It has nowhere to crack, nowhere to escape. It’s soft, round, and fluid. This is how I wish to exist in the world. I harden and contract still, yet now I have the tools and awareness to return to feeling circular and connected. I wish for my circle of compassion and giving to be as wide as possible, and I know this takes dedicated practice. In zen there is actually a vow we say daily in order to remind ourselves of this commitment. “Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them” is the first line of the Four Vows. Not “saving” anyone in terms of the savior and victim; that’s a trap of roles that takes on an arrogant Jesus complex. Rather, it’s more practically how can I help? It’s also about saving others from our own crap and pathology, but that’s for another post. “Om Mani Padme Hum” is a common Buddhist mantra that helps temper and soothe our ego states and reactivity, which means we are automatically more helpful to each other. When we are calm and open, we can better serve each other. We are grounded, ready, and more able. Beloved spiritual teacher Ram Dass translated om mani padme hum to, “how can I help?”. I have found that the more I open my heart, the more purely and effectively I can help. The more open my heart is towards myself, the more that spills onto my surroundings. It’s why I can write this blog, create, and DJ. Four years ago my circle of giving did not include myself. If we can’t look at ourselves clearly and witness our own needs, we can forget about witnessing the needs of our loved ones and neighbors. We can’t see through a foggy mirror, and the good news is that fog can be wiped away. I was proud that a lady who took a meal asked me if I was Jewish. It’s not obvious, in my modern clothing and way. I asked her how she knew, and she replied that she had a feeling. The Jewish community is indeed a powerful and generous resource. We can direct our efforts and attention to vast oceans of need. In the wake of the scary rise of anti semitism, let’s be better than hate. Let’s stay open where the instinct is to contract out of fear. We are stronger than hate always, on a micro and macro level. Let others throw stones, that’s their karma. Ours is to serve with love and nourishment. I fully believe this is our test right now, and tests are always a compliment because source/Hashem knows we can triumph. It’s why we are still here. Our karma is good. Lean into that knowing while we face hatred from others. It’s a valuable teaching; the world can be upside down and still, and yet, we proceed in ways we know are right and true. This is always the way. It’s easy to get tossed about by the news, social media, opinions, and discussions. We have the ability to anchor ourselves underneath the turbulent waves of the world, just like the spirit can always be anchored underneath the turbulent mind states and thoughts we are constantly experiencing. I learned an important lesson as I was packing my meals into the refrigerator. A homeless looking man was approaching. I benevolently asked him if he’d like a meal. He answered that he was there to drop off food as well. It was an excellent reminder to watch our assumptions, and also that anyone and everyone has the power to give something. Whether it’s 40 meals and bags of produce, three cans of beans, or a smile, we can all give something. It’s all important and it’s all needed. We are all of great value. It’s when we forget this that things go off the rails as a society.

I was proud to show my kids this particular endeavor. They are being raised in a Jewish bubble, but I’m hopefully teaching them that that has a shelf life. If we demonstrate to our children that we know how huge their hearts are, we build within them a trusting of that knowledge. We slowly show them that the circle of compassion and giving gets bigger and bigger.

I love to cook in large quantities, and so providing healthy, balanced meals to others was a true joy for me. Nourishment is a really big deal in every sense. When we give and receive nourishment, nutritionally, physically, or emotionally, we all benefit each other. I need you to give to, and to receive from. If we only give we die. Receptivity is just as essential. Receiving is healthy, and only when I began to learn this was I able to truly give from a pure space. I am worthy of being given to. You are worthy of being given to. We all dance on a balance beam of yin and yang, giving and receiving. When we over give, we deplete ourselves. When we only take, it’s a selfish and miserly existence. It’s a contracted and fear based way to live that comes from survival mode. To my fellow empaths, I see your need to over give. This, too, is fear based survival mode. I watch myself very closely in this way; do I give at the expense of myself? Do I give to earn approval, points, or recognition? Is my giving transactional since generosity was the only way I learned to receive affection? Giving can be very complicated. It can also be very simple, as it was here. There are hungry people and I was blessed to be able to provide food. No points, no transaction. If you need it, take it. We are equal and right now this is what you need. Tomorrow I will need something, as things are inherently impermanent. The only thing we can rely on is change. May we be there for each other as the world keeps changing. May we defog our mirrors. May we expand our own hearts to include everyone. May we use social media for social action.

To participate in Our Food NYC and the Classon Community Food Project, please find them at

https://ourfood.nyc/

https://linktr.ee/Classon_Community_Fridge

IG- @ourfoodnyc @classon_community_fridge

Googling your local food pantries and shelters is also a great way to help. Information, and need, is everywhere️.