Sprouts And Other Small Things

I love sprouting. It a very economical and highly nutritious endeavor. Phytonutrients are extremely concentrated in sprouts because everything the plant needs to grow is contained in the seed. Think about that for a minute. They are rich in protein, folate, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese and vitamins C and K. A little broccoli seed, when placed in the soil, will grow into an entire broccoli plant. The intelligence and food for that journey is largely contained in the seed. So, everything is concentrated.

Recently, I talked about sprouting in my Four Eyed Plant Eater group on Facebook and there are tons of helpful videos online. Growing your own sprouts is economical because every tablespoon of seeds produces about a cup of sprouts; and each cup of sprouts is exponentially more beneficial than even the full-grown plants. Dr. Michael Greger talks about the benefits of sprouts in his helpful video. Among other things, sprouts make a great way to get your veggies while on the road or just navigating the landscape of our busy lives.

But the reason I was thinking about sprouts is not because they are so nutritious or economical, even though they are. I started thinking about sprouts because of their size. The more we understand things like Quantum physics, the more we understand that there are mysteries that we do not know yet. We used to think of the atom as the smallest unit of matter, but now we say that it is, “the smallest unit of ordinary matter.” But now we are gaining understanding of subatomic particles that are even smaller.

Everything in our societies is geared toward discovering and inventing the bigger. I lived in the state of Texas where bigger is always better. But as we develop bigger and bigger supercolliders, we are slowly discovering that many of the answers are in the subatomic size particles that they uncover. It is like we are just getting started discovering what everything is about. Not only do we see intelligence and energy at this level, but we also are discovering a connectedness that baffles us.

Could it be that we will find the intelligence to solve some of our deepest problems, not in the grandiose, but in the elemental? Maybe we will genuinely find God not in the megachurch or in our network of associations, but in the exceedingly small, inner confines of our own being? Just like the scientists are digging deeper into the subatomic particles and finding answers, possibly we will find the answers in the space of something that appears very, very tiny instead of something that screams of its own magnificence!

I like the sprouting seeds package called Broccoli and friends. It contains broccoli, radishes, clover, and alfalfa. It is exactly right for me and I try to keep some growing all the time. Every once in a while, I find myself staring at the bag of seeds or just looking at the sprouts thinking “All of the intelligence and capacity for that large broccoli plant exists dormant in that tiny seed and/or that tiny plant. It boggles my mind and challenges me to think BIG about SMALL things.

I am just getting started in my understanding of quantum physics, but I have the rest of my life to contemplate how many of the answers that I am seeking might be found in the smallest of places. I did not have time to talk about space, but even in the subatomic particles there is space between the elements. I hope we make space in our lives for things like sprouting, or maybe more importantly, for contemplating how small things might be the big things after all.

Be where you are, Be who you are, Be at peace,

Karl Forehand