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Depending on the occasion, a more information or humorous prayer might be just as appropriate as a solemn one. If you're sitting down informally but still want to throw up a thanks, go with a classic rhyming prayer of school cafeterias and summer camps: Example: Good food, good meat, good God, let's eat. Example: Lord, we know without a doubt, you'll bless this food as we pig out. Example: Bless this food before us set, which needs all the help that it can get. If you've just seated yourself at a table with a crew that likes to imbibe, celebrate the spirits with this classic: Example: May your glass be ever full, may the roof over your head be always strong, and may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead. Example: When I dream of Heaven, I dream of the past / Surrounded by good friends raising a glass. Eating at an English professor's house? Say grace by quoting everyone's favorite Transcendentalist. His poem "Grace" reads: For each new morning with its light, / For rest and shelter of the night, / For health and food, for love and friends, / For everything Thy goodness sends, / We offer thanks. Amen. Thanks and meals are directly linked in ASL, whose sign for "thanks" involves moving the hand from the mouth forward, displaying a flat palm. This is traditionally used before a meal in place of a blessing, and as an invitation of both thanks and eating. Learning simple blessings from cultures not your own can be an interesting way of offering perspective and gravity to the meal. Some examples: Japanese: itadakimasu (I am receiving) Latin American: To those who have hunger, give bread. To those who have bread, give hunger for justice. Ghanaian: Earth, when I am about to die I will lean on you. While I am alive, I will depend on you. Southeast Asia: This food is the gift of the whole universe. May we be worthy to receive it. May the energy in this food give us the strength to transform our unwholesome qualities into wholesome qualities.
Go with a cafeteria prayer. Offer a drunkard's toast. Quote Emerson. Learn the American Sign Language (ASL) blessing. Use aphorisms from around the world.