I’m continuing to work through Justin Whitmel Earley’s The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction. One of the habits that he recommends is sharing one meal a day with others.
I’m surprised to find out how difficult this actually is. It was easy when we had children at home. Family dinner time was a non-negotiable. However, our children are gone now, and my wife and I can get caught up in our various projects and eat on our own sometimes. Also, I went for the past nine weeks without being able to sit at a table because of my knee injury. This made it much easier for us to eat in the living room and turn on the TV, which I’m not counting in the “one meal a day with others.”
Earley writes that in our quest for efficiency, eating with others is a luxury. The big takeaway from this habit is that it forces us to orient our schedule around others, which is a big part of making the transition of our default of self-centeredness to lives that are centered on serving others.
Right now on this habit, I’d probably give myself a C- on this habit. We have a standing Sunday evening get-together after church in our home, and I’m part of two Bible studies that have meals every other week. So, we do enjoy meals with others regularly. But this is an area where my life would be much enriched if I pursued this more zealously.
Half Baked 