Further Meditations on the Carrot

Three years ago this blog found me complaining mercilessly about the soullessness of the carrot. Perhaps it was my own lack of mindfulness that was really to blame.


I have since visited farmers markets and tasted organic produce, made carrot soups and carrot fritters...


...and I have learned that carrots can be tasty, or at least tastier, than the pre-packaged, whittled down variety pictured here:


I would like to present to you an excerpt from Thich Nhat Hanh's The Art of Power, a fitting passage due to its carotenoid subject matter.

I invite you to eat mindfully. Before you put the carrot into your mouth, you might say its name silently: "Carrot." It's as if you are mindfully calling the name of your beloved, and the piece of carrot reveals herself to you clearly. When you put it into your mouth, you are aware that it is carrot you are putting in your mouth. As you chew the piece of carrot, you know that you are chewing your carrot and not your projects, your sorrow, your anger, the past, or the future.

You do only one thing at a time. When you pick up the piece of carrot in this way, you may have a deep insight about the carrot. You see all the elements that have made the carrot possible. You can see the clouds floating in the piece of carrot, you can see the sunshine, you can see the earth in the piece of carrot. In fact, the piece of carrot is a representative of the whole cosmos coming to you. And you can smile to it. It doesn't take a lot of time. Maybe one second is enough. If you are mindful and concentrated, you will attain insight into the true nature of the carrot.

THINK ON THESE THINGS, the next time you begrudgingly reach for that crunchy, cruciferous orange stick. Think deeply, and take a bite of sunshine and clouds and outerspace and everything ever. Or try making the fritters, they're really good!