To: Associate Professor of English

Date: 26 August 2013

Re: Food Meditation

The food of my choice to examine for a couple days is oatmeal for this food meditation. Oatmeal has always been one of my favorite foods to eat. Growing up my brothers would make me oatmeal in the morning a couple days out of the week. Each time they made me oatmeal I would take at least one spoonful of oatmeal and fling it at the ceiling because I loved how it smacked and stuck to the ceiling.
To begin with this exercise Starting off by examining and taking notes each time I had oatmeal. Oatmeal from the visual perspective is interesting when you take the time. The oatmeal appears slightly gross after staring at it for an extended period of time. The appearance of cooked oatmeal is like a pile of wet, brown mush. Almost as if you took a bunch of construction paper tore it up in to a bunch of pieces, watered it down and mashed it up together until it was a pile of slop. Examining the smell of the oatmeal after looking at it for a while is a lot more pleasant to the senses. Next, Closing my eyes and pushing my face toward the bowl of oatmeal so that my nose is directly over the bowl. I immediately feel the small amount of heat rising upon my face. As I take a good breath through my nose a burst of fresh ground cinnamon with a hint of maple syrup hit my senses so that it almost made it seem as if the oatmeal is already being chewed upon and you can almost feel the cinnamon and syrup running down your throat. Examining the texture is the next step in the food meditation. Sense the oatmeal was cooked the Feeling the oatmeal was a little uncomfortable. Placing a small amount on the tips of my fingers I can feel a consistant slimy texture kind of like soap but it also had a slight bumpy texture due to the oats. The taste of the food meditation was the best part. Proceeding in taking a small bite of oatmeal and letting it sit in my mouth, the taste of cinnamon is immediate and the syrup flavor slowly crept up on the taste buds. The oatmeal felt bumpy, mushy, warm and at this point from sitting out the density was a little thicker than it was at the begining. This continued each time I had oatmeal. After moments of having the oatmeal in my mouth, The texture begins to become more watery because of the saliva build up that was taking place in my mouth and the sweet taste of cinnamon and syrup have pretty much evaporated from my senses. As I begin to slowly chew the oatmeal that is more of a puddle of mush, I feel the little bits of oats against my teeth. The taste of cinnamon and syrup slightly rise but overall disappear completely, leaving the oatmeal tasting blan