Life in a Berry Patch

An analogy for life.

It is black-raspberry season and we have been picking daily. I’ve frozen about 10 bags so far and I’m sure we’ve eaten about the same. Yesterday, as I went to pick this lovely one, I see a familiar pattern. There are actually 7 days or more of picking on this cluster. Those berries, one by one will present themselves ready. They change color and when ripe will easily roll off into your fingers. If they aren’t ready . . . they will fight you. Black-raspberries that aren’t ready can be quite stubborn. If you stick to picking the ones that are “ready”, you more than likely won’t get pricked by the thorns either.

We only have a couple more weeks of picking, then blueberries will be in season, followed by wild red-raspberries.  Summer is fun, eh? Everything in it’s time, during it’s season.

If you ever get the chance, try going to a pick-your-own farm. I find picking berries meditative. Once you get into the mesmerizing flow of it all, it is very relaxing. You hear the birds, feel gentle breezes, or the hot sun on your back. Sometimes the berries can give you insight.

We live in a world of quick news, quick results, microwaveable-pre-cooked-filled-with-bad-for-you-shit-meals. We live in a world of quick judgement, and quick words (especially if they are not nice). We live in a world of, “If you don’t meet up with MY standard, then . . . “. Therefore, maybe it’s time to learn a lesson or two from the berry patch!

Berries grow in clusters, but they mature differently.

Berries are sour until they are ready.

Berries come in all sizes, shapes and colors, yet they are called “berries”.

Berries thrive growing along with all kinds of weeds.

Berries have vision, they reach out into the unknown for their future.

Berries protect their future, those plants that produce fruit sweet enough to eat off the vine and eat for desert will rip you open in a heart-beat!

 

 

 

Berries require some wisdom, not everything that looks the same is the same! These two leaves look rather similar but one is entirely evil, the other as sweet as berry-pie. #1-Poison Ivy, #2 Black-raspberry.

Berries dry up, wither and die.

The seeds drop and a new generation

has opportunity to grow.

Oh, and then there are the bugs. They bite you when you pick, they hide in the leaves, they chew on the berries, and sometimes —- you eat them! Yuck.

OK, life is life until you die. We all are in different stages of life, each stage beautiful. If we enter into life each day knowing that we are surrounded by those just like us, by those who are different, by weeds, by bugs and all kinds of negative influences, we can survive, not only that we can thrive in our season.

That’s it, life lesson from a little fruit, written by an eccentric fruit who is going to go pick some now . . .

Enjoying the Adventure, (Especially when it tastes so good!)

Dr. Dink

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DOWN TO EARTH

Please visit my other Blog:  Brown Bag Letter

–a blog of stories celebrating “personal history”. You will find antique anonymous photos connected to stories people have shared with me about their grandparents and family folklore.

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Pencliff