Everything Is Beautiful

By David Laskarzewski, co-founder and co-director of UpRoot Colorado

Gratitude is a word much tossed about these days, as if it’s an abracadabra-like elixir used to sooner-rather-than-later alleviate and ease the mind, body, and spirit of struggle or pain…. Well. The thing about gratitude, though: it ain’t into instant gratification. Leveraging gratitude is the long game.

Requiring all the energy of getting out of the house to go do reps at the gym, practicing gratitude is a commitment. Day after day it’s a lift, and it doesn’t so much give you something as, over time, it loosens the best of what’s in your DNA—your talents—to share with the world.

You up for this?

Weaning yourself off of the cycle of semi-instantly getting Likes, heart emojis, and ego-soothing comments and hastening slowly toward the unscheduled waiverings of the proverbial limb? Striding the unknown, not-always-comfortable and not-always-clear route that you know is the way to initiating and sustaining the meaningful impact you crave? Can you practice gratitude when a day in your life doesn’t go as you planned, when you’re feeling bored, when your partner is angry with you for no apparent reason, or when you lose someone close to you?

I’m not certain I always am, or can.

Fortunately certitude isn’t a prerequisite for getting started, for achievement, for leveling up with the truth, or for changing the world.

“Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act,” said Albert Einstein.

And mussing around here on BoulderdotEarth, I’m guessing you feel a kinship with the beauty of our environment, and all of the manifestations of beauty that nature expresses: What makes you you, knowledge, trees, dreams, dirt, carrots that are orange and straight with green tops and carrots that are not.

Beauty is uplifting, and there are infinite expressions of it all around us but, as counterintuitive as it sounds, it takes time to let in more of what’s beautiful.

The “ugly” food movement serves a purpose, calling to everyone’s attention the wastefulness of our current food system and the trivial pursuit of “perfection” in the form of a singular peach, banana, or tomato. Each year on U.S. farm fields, 20,000,000,000 pounds of produce remains unharvested. That’s billion, with a B. Labor shortages, overplanting to ensure contracts are met, breaches of contracts, anthropomorphic climate-change-driven weather swings, insect damage; there are clues to why farmers aren’t selling more of what they grow nowadays but cosmetic standards currently imposed on produce (i.e., farmers) by grocery-store chains across America are not courageous or proactive. Ugly, wonky, misshapen … it’s all food! Nutrient dense. Life giving. Chow. In all its glory, with its ability to connect us, inspire us, harbor peace, squeeze the best out of our physiologies, relieve the burden on our healthcare system, and remind us that the aftertaste of gratefulness is sweet.

David Laskarzewski is co-founder and co-director of UpRoot Colorado whose mission is measurably reducing on-farm surplus agriculture in Colorado, supporting the economic stability of farmers, and increasing the nutritional security of our state’s residents. You can talk with him about the beauty of giving thanks, of food, of the St. Louis Blues winning the Stanley Cup or whatever comes to mind by emailing him at dave@uprootcolorado.org

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