Interbeing via the Pineapple Express

We are all connected.

It sounds so cliche' - as if we've heard it a million times before. The things with cliche's, in my opinion, though, is that if they're said so often, they must be true. Otherwise they would never have become cliches.

This sense of inter-connection between everything is what is referred to as "interbeing."

When you have some time...and if you don't think you have any...make some, to think about just how many steps it took for each thing you come across in your day and travels.

This morning I got up and before writing this decided to have a bowl of some fresh pineapple for breakfast. And as I finished up my pineapple pieces, I thought about just went into getting that pineapple into my plate. First, the pineapple had to grow, and be born. Then, someone had to come along and pick it.

Presumably, someone else then sold it to a grocery distributor, who then sent it out for delivery to stores. That pineapple was then packed by one person, and driven or flown - probably both - across states before it made it here. Then, that pineapple had to get delivered to the store where it was then put on display by one person, picked out by my fiance during a grocery trip, and processed and bagged at the store once bought. Then, my fiance, once home with the pineapple, skinned the pineapple and sliced it into a bunch of pieces and placed them in a Tupperware container in our fridge.

And from there was I then able to eat the bowl of pineapple slices that I had for breakfast this morning. And this simple act of eating breakfast has connected me to everything this pineapple has encountered along its way.

And that's not even mentioning the process that led to the pineapple tree and where that came from in the first place. Who decided to plant that tree? What were there reasons? Where did the other pineapples off that same tree go?

You see, in everything we do, there is a connection that ties us to the rest of the universe. It's an incredible feeling when you can realize and enjoy the intimacy you share with the rest of the universe just by being yourself.

Interbeing.

Crazy, huh? :)