One piece of bread

This summer I've been reading a few books by Thich Nhat Hanh that focus on mindfulness.  A chapter from one book that struck me centered on eating mindfully.  For many of us, life is so busy that we don't even sit down to eat anymore!  Instead, we devour meals walking out the door or standing at the kitchen counter.  Taking time to truly enjoy a meal sometimes feels like a luxury, but in reality it is something we can do everyday.

In the chapter on eating mindfully he talks about enjoying one piece of bread.  He says:

...you see that the bread isn't coming out of nothing: bread comes from wheat fields, the sunshine, the hard work of harvesting and milling the grain, baking it into loaves, delivering it to the store, and so on.  In just an instant, you look at the food and see where it comes from...you see that it comes from that beautiful field, the rain, a lot of work, manure, and so many other wonderful things-in fact, it comes from the whole universe.  The whole cosmos contributed in order for this piece of bread to be there in your hand.   

The whole cosmos, contained in one piece of bread?  It seems like quite a stretch until you begin thinking about it.  I've never baked bread from scratch before in my life, and I doubt there are many people who have made bread through every stage in the process, from growing and harvesting the wheat to the finished loaf in the oven.  I imagine an individual who HAS truly created bread from the starting point of cultivating wheat plants could more easily see the whole universe in one piece of bread!

Right now I am caring for my six-month-old son, Harlow.  It is important to me that he understands where food comes from, so I'm going to create an edible garden in our backyard.  I want him to be able to walk outside, pick a cherry tomato off the vine, pop it in his mouth and know that he helped to make that red bit of goodness grow.