Hungry

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
― Virginia Woolf

“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

How long have you gone without eating? Can you imagine yourself in that state of hunger? What starts happening to your mind as you get hungrier? What about your senses? What about your thoughts? What about your body? Your energy? Your other priorities? How long can you last before your patience, temperament, personality changes?

Essentially, I think there are A LOT of hungry people in this world.

Hungry to feel important or valuable.

Hungry for love and affection.

Hungry for attention and acceptance.

Hungry for money and wealth.

Hungry for pleasure and satisfaction.

Hungry for peace and quiet.

Hungry for sleep and recovery.

Hungry for freedom and independence.

Hungry for nutrients and strength.

Hungry to FEEL something…sometimes “anything”

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Hungry. Hungry. Humans.

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“For total starvation in healthy individuals receiving adequate hydration, reliable data on survival are hard to obtain. At the age of 74 and already slight of build, Mahatma Gandhi, the famous nonviolent campaigner for India’s independence, survived 21 days of total starvation while only allowing himself sips of water. In a 1997 article in the British Medical Journal, Michael Peel, senior medical examiner at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, cites well-documented studies reporting survivals of other hunger strikers for 28, 36, 38 and 40 days.”
-https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-long-can-a-person-survive-without-food/

My childrens great great grandfather was a prisoner of war. He was given seaweed and cigarettes. Nothing else. He attributed his survival on a few things. Trading his cigarettes for more seaweed being just one of those things. This man came home to his family weighing roughly 60lbs. Living, but barely alive.

The body goes into starvation after only 1-2 days. If not treated. Starvation eventually leads to death. *homework* look up “autophagy”

Now for the parallel.

There are not accurate or all encompassing studies and scales yet concerning how long humans can be starved of other human needs before “dying.”

How long can a human go without love?

How long can a human go without freedom?

How long can a human go without peace?

Before they are starved, changed, and parts begin to die?

Interesting right?

I wonder how many people out there are starved. I wonder what would happen if we were able to “swish and flick” everyones internal meters all to “full.”

NOW how would they behave? How would they think on full? What would their priorities be once satiated?

We can be such needy little things. Like: Boats with holes. Multiple meters needing coins. Batteries needing charge. Electricity needing a current to flow…input and output. Consumption and waste.

Living things require attention. Living things require nurturing. Living things die if not given their equivalent of needs. Living things who are given only a handful of needs, but miss out on others. Change. Morph. Turn into something else.

When human needs are starved, I believe a devolution of the soul happens. Starvation brings out the crazed hunger. The selfish “take” “mine” “I want” “me me me” “whatever it takes” “out of my way” “gimme gimme” “more!” “me first” shadow side to desire.

Hunger: “an strong desire, or craving for.”

If you are not feeding your strong desires, your souls cravings? They don’t just “go away.” They are starved. And you become changed.

Likewise. If you “DO” feed those strong desires. The cravings of your soul/spirit/being/essence/source…whatever you want to call it. You become more FULLY ALIVE.

Interesting right? FULL(y) ALIVE?

Alive: “alert and active; animated.”

When full. How much do you think about food? How selfish are you to get more of it?

I believe we have been conditioned to fear “feeding” our souls the ways “they” truly desire to be fed. In fear that SELFISHNESS will be the result of a fed soul.

I believe the opposite is true.

The more I feed my soul. The less I worry about “me me me.” The less I feed my soul. The more starved I become.
*And how do starving people behave again? Do you see my logic here?

“What feeds the soul?’” Would be a natural follow up question.

So what do you think? What feeds yours?

Something to think about. Something I think about. Something to feed.

From one hungry hungry human to another,

Love in.

Love out.

-Aubrey