Touch is a powerful form of food. Our pets know this and often supply us with an unacknowledged but vital form of nutrition.

When we think about food we automatically go to the refrigerator of the mind: fruits, candies, vegetables, meat, all the usual abundance we so enjoy in North America.

Another kind of food or rather, many other kinds of food exist however and are just as important for our overall well-being: the food of touch, the food of emotion, the food necessary for spiritual growing, the food of listening, of sight…the list goes on.

For every activity, every thought and every sound we utter food sits right behind it. Consider: when we are greeted at the door by a beloved pet, and take the moment to bend down and pat the warm, living fur of our friend, we receive a blast of love. The blast may be small at the end of a long, difficult day, but it helps us to remember we are loved and belong in this world with those who love us. When we find a partner, our plate is full of touch: the touch of hands, the touch of bodies and the touch of sight, how our partner looks at us. We feel renewed, regenerated and brought to a greater sense of living because we have around us someone who feeds our need to be touched.