Parable of the Mustard Seed

In just a few months I'll be moving further into retirement. (Hurray!) My darling spouse has asked me to do more of the cooking since I'll have extra time on my hands, and that's OK because I actually enjoy cooking.

To improve my culinary skills, I watched a couple of cooking shows on TV yesterday. Oddly enough, both shows talked about using mustard as an emulsifier to bind water and oil together. Without the mustard, oil and water naturally separate, not wanting to be together at all.

Then, listening to the readings in church this morning, I once again heard the parable of the mustard seed:

"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. The mustard seed is one of the smallest of seeds, but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches." Matthew 13:31-32

It occurred to me that the mustard seed could represent our own mindfulness, our consciousness, our awareness of the present moment. If we can properly nurture this to grow in our own field ("our life"), we'll bring with it a greater knowledge and action of the loving Holy Spirit within us, in all that we do, think or say. By doing this, we can bring peace; we can dialogue about our differences instead of debating them. We can learn to see that the different ways people think are opportunities for ourselves to grow and learn. We can drop our prejudices and illusions. We can begin to blend the oil and water of life into a common understanding through the Presence of God in our lives. We can learn to unite instead of divide.

This may be one of the smallest of ideas, one of the littlest things we can do each and every moment: to deeply listen to the other person, to deeply see what is really going on, to deeply think about what we're about to say or do before we do it. But it's also the very thing that can grow large, and be inviting to others (represented by the birds of the air).

Just like any other skill, we need to practice our mindfulness to make it as effective as possible. Let's start right now! Pass the mustard, please...