The Healing Power of Food

I love Food Network. I don't get that channel at my house on the reservation and because I am at my mom's housesitting, I have been soaking it up. I would like to be a chef, but I am only a cook. I can guess what will taste good by throwing some spices together and such, but that is only because I have watched so many cooking shows. I learned from chefs. Food is so important to one's soul...more than anyone thinks.
Whenever something happens, take for example my stepdads funeral...oh let me blog about this because I always meant to but I never did because of some of the insensitivity on 360. The day after my stepdad passed this lady who is a clairvoyant (She also works for the same newspaper as I do.) called my mom. My stepdad had gone to her the night before. He told her he left and he wanted her to tell my mom some things.
He said he was sorry, he said he didn't want to go and he was just as sad and in complete shock that he died. He didn't want to leave his kids like that, and definitely didn't want to pass away in front of them. He told the lady that anytime anyone feels sad, that he will be to the right of my mom and a little behind her and to remember that. His parents had come for him but he told them that he wanted to saty until the end of the funeral, then he would go. He also told the lady that my mom had a book he didn't get to read yet. He wanted her to open it with a cigarette on top of it. (Tobacco is an offering to the spirits in my culture) The book was "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama. (He was leaning left in his old age :)We found it to set it out for him...it was the only thing he put on the bookshelf into the new house they were moving into...well that and picture of my 3 youngest siblings. He had taken one load of stuff over there and had his heart attack after that. Anyway at the funeral I knew he was there to the right of my mom. When we buried him there was a balloon in one of the floral arrangments. A helium mylar balloon. It was snowing and about 20 degrees out. Have you ever seen a helium balloon in the cold? It shrinks and it won't float. When the last shovel full of dirt was put on his grave, the balloon (a rose) took off. It floated and floated as my brother and his friends sang the Sioux Honoring song. I knew it was him and I have never seen something so beautiful.
After the funeral, we gathered in the school gymnasium it was held in. There was a feast. None of us kids had to get our own plate or get in line, we were served our plates. The food was delicious, soon we were talking, laughing and reminiscing. The food started our healing process.
So I am not a chef, plus with the many other things on my mind, I don't think I could creatively and methodically cook the way they do.
But to see and hear the sounds of food being cooked on tv soothes me in some way. Food is just as important to the soul as it is to your body. It sustains us in so many ways.