On abundance
I've accidentally convinced my friend that I really love kale and now I have two plastic shopping bags filled with it cramping my fridge and in need of immediate use. I’m annoyed that I need to figure out how to use this much kale. Annoyed as I preheat the oven to make kale chips. And as I sit annoyed tearing and drying kale leaves I actually realized what I was feeling, and asked myself why?
Am I annoyed by the kindness of a friend?
Is the labor of processing it too much to handle?
Why am I bothered by this blessing of abundance?
I decided on that moment to instead be grateful, and set out to look for abundance around me.
Outside the art gallery on opening night of the pride art show we park under a mulberry bush and are pelted with sweet dark berries. The ground is covered in them. One friend called it a disgusting bush, another messy, but I saw unprocessed abundance! That just requires labor to become something. So we returned and got a good amount of berries off the tree to make mulberry jam.
Many people are intensely disconnected from food and how it grows. This disconnect makes us see abundance as a mess, and limits our creativity in processing that abundance. It would be impossible for me and my partner to process and consume all of the mulberries in that parking lot, but what if five people took home a pound or two of berries? Would the jam muffins and pastries be annoying? Would people still regard it as a trash tree? I will say they are invasive where I am, (I believe this bush is a hybrid of the invasive and native varieties) but what better way to stop the spread than to eat the seeds ourselves?
My partner and I have had some bad luck with squashes in our garden. Before this year we had not successfully grown a single squash on purpose ( we did accidentally grow a pumpkin last year) so when the zucchinis we planted in our forth attempt to grow squash put out female flowers I was overjoyed. My first zucchini paraded around the house like a gift from the gods! We have received many since ( and so have the rabbits!) Healthy zucchini plants are prolific producers, there's even a holiday to celebrate how wonderfully abundant zucchini can be-
August 8th, national sneak zucchini into your neighbors porch day!
Sounds like annoyance with abundance to me.
What if instead we allowed ourselves the time in space to transform these feelings, and the places we find abundance in our lives? Instead of passing the responsibility of excess zucchinis on our neighbors, we can bring them to a food bank where fresh food is rare and limited. Or we can transform the squashes ourselves into zucchini bread to gift our local librarians and friends (libraries have so much abundance to share!)
Where do you have extra and what kinds of extra do you have? Energy and rage for internet discourse could be redirected to your local city council and school board meetings, a place where you can make a real difference! With an abundance of time you can dedicate some to causes you care about. An abundance of love can be given to shelter animals while they wait for their homes. And yes, an abundance of kale can be transformed into healthful meals and gratitude for friendship.
Song recommendation: Mouth of a flower - Hayley Hendrix
