A Single Grain of Rice

I'll admit I am superstitious — I would never open an umbrella indoors or walk under a ladder. So when I bought a bag of jasmine rice a few months ago, I saw something on the package that struck me. It read, "An ancient proverb says you must never let one grain of rice spill - or bad luck will come your way." Powerful stuff. In food-rich America, we casually spill food, waste food and reject foods that aren't exactly what we had in mind.

Inspired by the proverb, if I spill any rice en route to the cooking pot, I now recover every grain. Sometimes on my hands and knees to pick up 3-4 pieces of rice. I do this partly to hold onto my good fortune. But also to make me grateful. If every grain of rice is precious, how much bounty is sitting right here in my kitchen cabinets and refrigerator! When I read the remarkable biography Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand recently, I came to appreciate what a few grains of rice can mean to a starving prisoner-of-war.

"Every grain of rice" is also a reminder about the everyday miracles I shouldn't take for granted. Holding the hand of a child, listening to a beautiful piece of music, watching a bee on a sunflower blossom — the list is as countless as grains of rice in a sack.