Seedlings & Smoothies
I’m wearing my down jacket as I write from my home office, that doubles as my yoga space. I turned off the heat and I feel determined not to turn it back on today despite the cooler temperatures. I find this a little funny as I intend to write about plant life and our relationship to it.
Is anyone else obsessing over their seedlings? I’ve been talking to ours and checking their progress throughout the day. I especially love to see their growth overnight!
If you’ve been in class with me lately you’ve heard me talking about the book, ‘Braiding Sweetgrass.’ The beauty written on the natural world and our relationship to it has penetrated me and my current experience. Robin Wall Kimmerer writes,
I’ve lain among ripening pumpkins and heard creaking as the parasol leaves rock back and forth, tethered by their tendrils, wind lifting their edges and easing them down again. A microphone in the hollow of a swelling pumpkin would reveal the pop of seeds expanding and the rush of water filling succulent orange flesh. These are sounds, but not the story. Plants tell their stories not by what they say, but by what they do.
What if you were a teacher but had no voice to speak your knowledge? What if you had no language at all and yet there was something you needed to say? Wouldn’t you dance it? Wouldn’t you act it out? Wouldn’t your every movement tell the story? In time you would become so eloquent that just to gaze upon you would reveal it all. And so it is with these silent green lives. A sculpture is just a piece of rock with topography hammered out and chiseled in, but that piece of rock can open your heart in a way that makes you different for having seen it. It brings its message without a single word. Not everyone will get it, though; the language of stone is difficult. Rock mumbles. But plants speak in a tongue that every breathing thing can understand. Plants teach in a universal language: food.
I’ve also been re-reading, ‘Finding Your Way in a Wild New World,’ by Martha Beck. In this book, Martha shares her own experience along with the wisdom of her teachers. She provides simple guidance on how to deepen our connection to the plants and animals around us. Some of you probably already practice her suggestions. Her starting point is meditation. She calls it, ‘wordlessness.’ When she talks about plants she speaks of, ‘oneness.’ In Martha’s words, “Plant’s don’t need us to create a green revolution; we are the ones whose lives depend on it. But as you begin to consciously experience your Oneness with plants, these great beings will begin to care for you in turn.”
I tend to eat heavier foods in the winter and with spring in the air I’ve re-introduced smoothies into my diet. I want to emphasize that I’m NOT sharing this to encourage weight loss! I’m sharing because I’m inspired to increase the amount of greens in my diet while balancing my blood sugar and felt perhaps someone on this list might be inspired too. My current smoothie is influenced by a podcast I listened to a few years ago where Kelly Leveque was the guest. The message was on balancing blood sugar. I was a bit overwhelmed by the science behind what she was sharing but I was intrigued enough to try it. Kelly Leveque’s Fab Four recipe includes GREENS, FAT, PROTIEN & FIBER. You can learn more about it and find recipes on her website: Kelly LeVeque.
I close with gratitude for our green friends and their gift to us. May our actions foster respect for the earth. May we deepen our connection to the lives we depend on for our own.