Carrots are a humble food.
They make a good show above ground, with lacy greens like a fountain springing from brown earth. But the part that feeds you is hidden away from marauding rabbits and misguided lawn mowers.
Embryonic
carrots start at the surface and go deep, deeper. Orange appears like magic from a seed that had no more pigment than dryer lint, and is scarcely the size of a cookie crumb.
You rarely see commercials for carrots, though they are as deserving of recognition as the latest spill proof yogurt snack. They are versatile, showing up in organic salads, daal, stir fries, thick soups, juice, juliennes and
cream cheese frosted cake.
I like that there are usually carrots in our vegetable crisper. They do not have the snazzy packaging of a resealable zip lock bag, and there is probably even some residual dirt, waiting to be scrubbed.
But they are crunchy, and sweet, and do good things for my body if I let them. Eating them
gives me keener eyesight, higher B-carotene levels, and antioxidants. Even kids who wish I would bring them salt and vinegar potato chips while they play on the floor accept the offering of carrot sticks, and when I come back the bowl is empty.
Marriage is nourishing too, when your soul feels hungry for the companionship of someone who has come to stay. Dating and a string of relationships can be an
energy drain... questions and indecision that show up too frequently when all you want is to know.
Falling in love was fun, I will admit, and as pretty as the carrot tops flirting in the breeze. But what keeps me alive, today, next year, is the part you cannot see. It is the taproot that reaches for the core, finding minerals where my eyes cannot even go and bringing them back to me as
lunch.
God hides good things in secret places, and my marriage seems to attract them. We work together to carry sleepy children in from the car after a long trip home from the shore, and have a conversation about our floundering son. We practice listening, when it is neither easy nor convenient to do so. Our vision gets keener, our compassion levels climb, and we are better able to ward off
relational disease. These are like vitamins, hidden in the soil of life, that add vitality to a spiritual body that would atrophy on a diet of deliciously deceptive self indulgence.
We are courted by the media with a far different message, one that props narcissism as irresistibly as it does freeze pops, neither of which are even close to being food.
So bring on the carrots. I have some cream cheese and nuts. Today, I want to make cake.
