Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Life Force

About five or six days ago, I cooked a dish of pinto beans. After the dish was cooked, I found a single bean that had fallen on the kitchen floor. On an impulse, not wanting to throw it in the garbage, I stuck it in a pot of soil on the sill in front of the kitchen window where I keep African Violets. I had placed that pot of soil on the sill to use it later for a section of an African Violet which had become too big for its container.

It never occurred to me that this single bean which was designed for eating would take root. But it did, and in two days. Four days ago, I came to the kitchen early in the morning and found that the bean had sprouted.

I am not alien to raising vegetables. About thirty years ago when we lived in Long Island, NY, I had a vegetable garden where I raised Italian beans from seeds in small packets. I know beans are fast guys, but this bean that wasn't meant to be sown had taken root all on its own. In two more days, it became a five-inch stalk. Amazing!

Far be it from me to think of it as a simple bean stalk. The way it's going, it will need the fairytale's Jack to climb it. In the meantime, I put a straw near it for support, although it doesn't seem to need it.

Watching it, the term life force comes to mind. What a strong energy that is!

The Chinese call it qi or chi. Star Wars called it The Force. Some of us call it élan vital, vitalism, energy, spirit, or even soul. Whatever we may call it, what type of an esoteric spirituality we may attach to it, it is what it is, and it is awesome.

a being in green
sprouted from dirt
through shadows, like love

its dream beyond my grasp

to think it will go away
responding to a call
radiating drama

and dreams beyond my grasp