Fields

"I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it." Shug Avery. 


This is hands down my favorite line in Alice Walkers book, The Color Purple. I'm sure it does piss God off when we don't notice things. "Hello, I've made an entire field of flowers! Put your smart phones down now or I will smite your asses!" To avoid the smiting, I make sure I not only notice fields of purple I admire them. Let's face it, I've made God mad enough...I need all the help I can get! And admiring flowers is easy, especially purple ones. But one day when I was on my way home from the hospital I passed a field of a different color. This field was so beautiful I'm sure not noticing it would've been grounds for immediate smiting. And it wasn't even purple! I was coming around a curve on a country road. The sun was low in the sky but still shining brightly. To my left was a field of what I've decided must be soybeans. 

Every leaf was illuminated by the angle of the sun. It was the most brilliantly vibrant field of green I've ever seen. It made me so happy. When I passed it the next morning the angle of the sun was just about the same. Same glow, same vibrance. I looked forward to passing this field every morning and evening. I wondered what was it that made me enjoy this field of green so much? It's never been one of my favorite colors. Why did I smile every time I drove by? (It's a 45 minute commute...what did I have to do other than ponder fields?)


This is my conclusion. When I looked at this field of plants I did not have dreams of tofu scrambles. I saw how very alive, how vital it was. Green, the color of spring, of life and renewal. I saw plants, new life. I saw the rebirth of myself. A 42 year-old woman who has shrugged off winter and is ready for spring...