Caught Unaware
To act without awareness, is to be human, and so it was for us, as we battled this unknown 'weed' that loved to show up in our garden. What we didn't know was that this 'weed' was a nutritional powerhouse that was simply trying to get our attention. And so from this experience we set ourselves on a course to start acting with more awareness, which is also a part of the process of being human.
"O, happy the soul that saw its own faults"
Lamb's Quarter is a rapidly growing, self-seeding annual that has many aliases. These include wild spinach, goosefoot, pigweed, fat hen, mealweed, baconweed, and frost-bite, which is probably so named for the white mealy coating that covers the leaves. Lamb's Quarter comes from the prestigious line of Chenopodium, whose family members include other nutritional giants like quinoa, swiss chards, beets, and spinach.
This plant is a hero of the plant world because it takes our abuses, yet comes back. It does not ask for special coddling, and requires no special care, and yet year after year, from spring till fall, it graces us with a healthy alternative to our mass produced and transited spinach. You would do well to give Lamb's Quarter a try.
"It may be then that form serves us best when it works as an obstruction, to baffle us and deflect our intended course. It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. the impeded stream is the one that sings."
