Garden Epeaphany

It is often said that the most profound thoughts come when we are just being. In my case, it was when I was in a state of pure “peaing”, that is, quietly picking peas in the dappled light of our mid-morning garden.

If you’ve ever had the sublime experience of picking garden peas, you know that all your senses get involved in not only a “heady” experience but also a full body immersion. Pure green vines surround you in a giant heartbeat of life, their energy pulsing and humming like mad in your ears. While your eyes seek out a fat pea pod, the light and shadow play hide and seek and your perception may be fooled. Any pea picker worth their salt, however, knows that the secret is in the feel of the pods. If it’s not rounded and plump, it needs to stay on the vine for another day or two to grow into the “pea it will be.”

And that’s about when the “epeaphany” hit me:  we’re all peas, in a constant state of growing. The longer we’re left alone to take in the light, the wiser and more mature we become. Like us, the very young peas begin as small bright flowers which quickly develop into flat green pods – nothing in there of any size, but full of lots of promise. The adolescent younger peas are small, tender and bursting with freshness, but it takes a lot more of them to fill up a bowl. They pop out their green chests with bravado; however, with a gentle squeeze, there’s some warm, if not hot, air packed within, not to be found in the fat, fully mature peas.

The wondrous harmony of life allows all of us to be young and fresh and full of promise, but a season in the sun (a mere few days for a pea) will transform a novice into a master.  Of course, beauty can be found in every stage of every life. The best thing about the pea is that it doesn't stress over what to do next. The pea will just be. Then, when it is time to be picked from its life force, it’s outer shell is shed and the humble pea gives what life it has left to nourish another being. Do we, in our human existence, really need to attain more than that?

While we may fret over our perceived powerlessness in a world gone mad with power, it is those small but diligent, heartfelt thoughts of love, along with those selfless “without a thought” random acts of kindness, that are creating and have always created the perpetual evolution of humanity.