Never Take a Raisin for Granted

The world is a fast pace complex place where finding time for self-contemplation is often challenging. This contemplation time is an important part of understanding the world around us. For my first contemplative practice I was skeptical because I had never participated in this type of deeper reflection and engagement before, but it really opened my eyes to the way in which the world around us is changing and effecting humans worldwide. The first contemplation I participated in was understanding a simple everyday food item of a raisin. Raisins are something that I often take for granted they are in cookies and trail mix, but I never thought about the process in which they are made and brought to the table. During this contemplative practice we held a raisin in our hand and watched the changing practices of raisin production.

From:  Jansen, Carolize. Somewhat Smaller, but Excellent Raisin Harvest Expected. 1 Mar. 2017.

Originally the production of raisins was very physically tasking where long hours of human labor would be placed into the production of picking, drying, and collecting the product. As demand began to climb and technology began to advance the physical work was replaced by machines that were able to pick, sort and dry the grapes quickly and productively. After watching these videos about the evolution of production of the raisin. The raisin did not feel small anymore it was a part of something that was much larger than myself. It was a natural product of the earth that had gotten caught up in the industrialization of the world food system. I began to think about the raisin as a part of a larger system in which the demand for the output synergy was higher than the input capability and it was creating a lack of raisins. In order to balance the system physical labor began to be replaced with machines and input began to produce the needed output of the system.

From: Cline, Harry. Open Gable Vinyard. 27 Nov. 2012.

Without this contemplative practice I would have never thought deeper into the time and energy that is placed into the creation of something that is part of my everyday life. I hope to continue these practices in order to gain a greater understanding of the systems around me.

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