Contemplative Shopping

Rain, it is finally raining. It looks like I won't have to water for another week or so. This is good. It is a slow growing season. The plants, even the flowers in the cutting garden, are growing but oh, so, slowly. I did see flowers beginning to emerge on two of the eight tomato plants, in containers, on the balcony. One plants is still the same size as when I first put them all outside almost a month ago.

When you grow your own food, you develop a different relationship with what you eat than you do when you buy it. It doesn't matter what the source is farmer's market, supermarket or corner deli, it takes a greater stretch of your creative powers to picture where food comes from when you buy it than it does when you grow it. Now, of course, the closer you are to the source, the closer you are to understanding the relationships invovled within the food production cycle. A community shared agriculture project or a famer's market brings you closer to the source than a supermarket

When you consider how intimate our relationship with food is, you may begin to understand just how important that relationship is. When I go to the supermarket, as I sometimes must do, I try to purchase items that are grown close to home. This is very difficult but at least it gives me pause to stop and think about where the food comes from, and how long it takes to get from where it is grown to where I sit down and enjoy it.

If you watch other people shop, you can see that their primary interest is price. They are looking for bargains and giving little thought to the source. They are not developing a relationship with their dinner they are worrying about their budget.

This is not meant to belittle the importance of budgeting but when price is your primary concern, you are going to miss out on what is truly important. The fact that good quality food is essential for a good quality life. The two are inseparable.

People always seem in such a rush to buy groceries. It is a chore, something that you fit into an already crowded Saturday or Friday evening. Try looking at it like an experience, an adventure or a celebration. The food we eat connects us to Mother earth, and through Mother Earth to the Sun, the sources of all Life. So take a few extra minutes and realize that providing your family or yourself with nutritious food is one of the most important activities that you do.

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