Friday's lunch

I start the day sitting down to breakfast before leaving the house. Tell myself I will eat mindfully for lunch during work. Pack up raw vegies, canned salmon, water. About 2 pm, I realize I haven't eaten. Standing up in the kitchen, taking a few bites, I hardly chew the food, shoveling it in my mouth. Feel the familiar lump go down my esophagus. Stop. Breathe. I have been dealing with acid reflux, the results of eating this way has consequences, burning stomach, hours of burning.
I breathe. Notice other people in the kitchen. Talk with them. Feel hunger, it's sense of urgency, eat now it says, eat fast it says; there won't be enough. Hunger is loud, insistent, wants all the attention, no space for anything else. Hunger intensifes as the food enters the stomach; acid reflux? Forget that, says hunger. Hunger says eat. Nothing else matters.
I breathe. Note I can eat and chew the food well and remember the five contemplations, that this food is the gift of the whole universe, the earth, the sky, and much hard work. I think of the salmon and people in Alaska, the canning factory, the trucks driving it to the east coast. Everyone deriving income to support their lives and families. The lettuce comes from a local grower, grown here in December; organic carrots growing in lush soil supporting the planet; sun absorbed by these vegies, the sun I rarely see on days I work. May I transform my unskillful states of mind and learn to eat with moderation. How sometimes I get caught up in work and forget to eat. May I take only foods that nourish me and prevent illness. May I accept this food so that I may realize the path of understanding and love. I add to the five contemplations my own, May I be able to stop and breathe and eat mindfully, and rest in the river.