Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

"Our daily bread" - Try living on $2 a day


Mission 1 - Learn 1 - favorite secret:
Try living for a week on $2 a day

What you see on the photo is what kept me alive - fed - most of the days in the past winter months:
Flour, water and seeds.

I often hear people say here in Germany and back in California:
"Oh - I don´t know how I will survive next month ?!".
For many it meant many things - for most: if my money goes below the $2000 reserve that´s accessible to me, if I have to apply for social welfare, if I cannot afford my usual luxuries and security needs.
We are far away from "survival" - from dying of hunger here in the so called "rich, developed countries". I guess what many of my friends really meant was: "I don´t know how I will finance my life style next month".

"Survival" and "life style" are two very different things and I find it arrogant if we exchange these two in the "rich" countries. We are simply loosing reference and relation to countries in which "Survival" is the real issue: because of missing clean water and basic nutrition.

"Try living for a week on $2 a day" - now, that might be a bit difficult to calculate but let´s start with a very basic need: : food and a 7 day retreat "Our daily bread...."

In most households here in Germany and California (the two countries I´ve been living in) we find a tremendous food variety in the cabinets, fridges, deep freezer, tinned food rows, etc.

For our one week experiment we want to start with 0 food reserves. Nothing left in the kitchen and other places in our house. Don´t hide cookies under your bed ;)

Step 1: The Preparation
We start to prepare Day 1 of our retreat with using up and/or giving all food reserves away.
We might discover how many days and weeks we can still "live" even if we stop buying new food. Depending on your reserves Day 1 might take a while to come.
Try to experiment with new food combinations and receipts with your left overs - remember: Do not buy new food until the last bit is gone.

On Day 1 we have no food left and will not eat.
We explore our psyche, mind, emotions. What happens if no food is left in the house ? Do we panic ? Does it give us dis-comfort ? Are we calming us down in saying "Hey that´s just an experiment, I can buy food anytime or visit McDonalds around the corner if I really get hungry." ?

What happens around lunch time, without breakfast ? Does our blood sugar drop and we feel pretty dizzy ?
What happens in the evening if we made it without food ? Is it easy to fall asleep when the hunger starts to hurt ? How much does our mind circle around the basic need: food ?

Day 2
Try to focus on some work, a project in the morning. How does it go when your stomach is empty ?

If you feel you can do it, wait until the third day before you eat but don´t be to hard on you.

Around noon we´ll buy simple ingredients: flour, seeds and salt (no yeast) Our budget: 14$ for one week
Try to get some wh*** grain flour from your region if possible. Flour from corn is a nice "add-on" in the mix. Seeds can be sun flower seeds, sesame, flaxseeds, amaranth, etc. Let´s remember, our budget is 14$.


Back home we´ll bake our first bread and mix some flour with seeds and salt. We give water to the mix. Ahh water - what a gift ! Hands on, we start to mix and knead it all until we have the lump. Flatten the lump to a square or circle and bake it in the oven. Ahh a fire, an oven - what a gift.

While we touch the seeds with our hands let´s visualize the growth, involved work and ways in which we received this gift. We might have "much less" food than we´ve had in our house for a long time but let´s bring to our attention that we still have much more than most of our planetary sisters and brothers - in this one bread... soon to be served.

This bread does not need anything on it. No marmalade, cheese, butter, other stuff that we usually put on it. My son and I love to call it "Manna" or "elven bread".
Break the bread - maybe share it with someone. While we take time to chew on the first chunk we might feel gratefulness for this gift - for this "Daily bread". The seeds help to chew well and eat slow. Feel that warm feeling of having food in your stomach.


Day 3 - 7
We keep on celebrating this ritual, this "eucharist" of baking and breaking our daily bread. One bread a day is our daily meal.

--
I´ve been doing this for about 14 days last December and after that added more simple, organic food to my daily meal: a bowl of rice or lenses, couscous with onions, etc.

What I learned in this "Our daily bread" retreat:

  • When the hunger starts to hurt and I become weak´n dizzy because of my blood sugar level it´s hard to work and even harder to learn and do things with my mind.
  • But when this basic need - a simple meal and clean water - is available I can do a lot - even more then in my "stuffed" times, when I ate to much.
  • When baking the bread and I´m literally in touch with the seeds, I feel a deeper connection with the food, the gift of the Earth and labour. I feel gratefulness for being so privileged in receiving it and want others to receive the gift, too.
  • I realize, that I don´t need much food variety to be fed and be happy - to be served with energy to expand my life and work
  • I even realize how much poverty in my mind and emotions comes from "having to have much" - having to work hard to have much and to hoard large amounts of food
  • How much wealth can come from not having much, sharing that bit and being nurtured by social connections.
  • It´s hard for me to specify poor and rich countries. I see how much poverty and illness of mind arises in our over-eaten, isolated, rich consumer countries and how much wealth there can be in the simplicity of having just the basics shared with each other
  • That we are all developing countries - without exception and can learn from each other
  • Empathy and solidarity with those that suffer from mal-nutrition and the sacred gift of having at least one nutritious meal a day and a bottle of fresh water

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