We eat to live.

We eat in the morning,
and when we are hungry,
we look for something to eat.

It is such an ordinary part of life
that sometimes we forget
what our food was before it became food.

A fruit hanging from a tree
grows in sunlight and rain.

The fish on our table
was swimming in the water not long ago.

The meat we eat
once came from a living being
that breathed, drank water,
and looked out at the world.

The vegetables we eat
were also living things,
rooted in the soil
and growing toward the sun.

Much of what we eat
was once alive,
or came from something living.

And sometimes,
for one life to continue,
another life must come to an end.

We live
by depending on other life.

When we eat,
what we take in becomes part of us.

A life that once swam through the sea
becomes the strength that lets us walk and run.

Something that grew from the earth
becomes part of our body.

In this way,
a part of one life passes into another.

Perhaps being alive
does not mean living on our own.

Perhaps it means receiving life,
little by little,
from countless other living things.

Receiving life from other life,
and with it, continuing to make our own.

We do this
several times a day.

Perhaps eating is
far more important than we realize.

Because it is about what we live on,
and what we are made of.






IYAKI