Prayer before Meals

Sometime ago, when I was browsing 9GAG, I found someone who expressed uneasiness with people thanking God for the food served in front of them while not thanking the people who make the food available to you, such as the farmers, the drivers of food distributor, the cooks and so on. Well, I cannot disagree with the guy. Thanking God only should not be enough. The people serving the food in any ways would be instruments of God which we need to thank as well. Even better, if you believe in sanctity of lives from animals and plants, you should thank them as well for the lives they give for you to survive.

Thus, I make my prayer before meals something like this:
"Thank you, God (if you believe in God in any form or of any religion) for giving me this food. Thank you for all the portions of lives in it, the lives of animals and plants, the people who serve the food for me and all the people involved such that the food is served in front of me. Bless each lives in it and I pray for their dreams to come true, in this world or the next."

Well, I made such prayer because I believe in the next world, whatever you call it: heaven, reincarnation, etc. I also believe that it does not matter whether it is a life of human, animal or plant. Indeed, respecting them should not be done equally such that you treat human and animal the same (although some humans are savage beyond beasts). Some people respect animals more than plants, but I try to respect them equally (sometimes I use this as a reason why I do not like vegetables :p I don't like it, not because of the life value, but yuck, veggies). Anyway, that is my version of prayer. Of course, a prayer is almost always personal. Even when they share the same meaning, they could be said differently. This prayer of mine is far from perfect, but it includes respecting everything about the food.

For those of you who does not believe in deities or God, just say it in your heart that you hope the people who serve you the food get what they deserve. And if you have different beliefs from me, I will not force this prayer to you. Just make sure you are grateful for the food :)

Actually, this prayer was also included in the "Creative Visualization" book I told you on a post last time. Same meaning. I came up with it before I read that part of the book, but, oh well.