/ 0
READERS WRITE 
IS SHE HOME?
by Tracy F.
My sister, Lisa, and I were on our way home from a New York weekly workshop and we stopped to eat. During my eating experience, I checked in with my stomach and felt satisfied, but my mouth wanted to continue eating because the food tasted so good. I decided that I would ask for a take-out container and a plastic fork. I told myself that I would eat more of this delicious meal whenever I felt hungry for it again—in 10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, whenever.
As we were driving back to Philadelphia, I felt hungry and was delighted to eat more ziti. It tasted just as good as before and was enough to satisfy my hunger. A minute after eating the ziti, however, I reached for my food bag to get some chocolate even though I was already satisfied. I realized that I was looking for something sweet out of habit, without checking in with myself. So I said to my sister, "I'm checking to see if my internal caretaker is home." Lisa replied, "Is she?" I said, "Actually, yes she is." Lisa said, "Good. But if she'd been out, mine is home and could have come over if you'd needed her to!"
