Reason #137
My mom and I took Scout on another one of our infamous walks tonight. It was hazy and hot, and I felt sympathy for New Mexico as the smoke from their fires filled the West Texas air.
We walked and we talked, and I loved the fact that at 9:00PM there was still plenty of light to guide us along. When we returned to her house, we felt we were due a snack and a glass of tea. Out from the refrigerator came three bowls of fruit. A bowl of cherries, a bowl of strawberries, and a bowl of grapes, each brimming to the top with nature's candy. Nothing says summer better than iced cold tea and sweet fruit. So we grabbed our forks, the ipad and we began a new conversation.
And we talked, and when one took a breath the other one chimed in. And as we talked, we ate. Now, I have to admit that cherries have become my favorite fruit. I love fruit A LOT, so that's really saying something about cherries. I can hardly wait for summer to roll around each year because that means fruit season is in full force. So, I reached into the bowl full of cherries, picked up a cherry, popped the whole thing in my mouth, chewed the outside off of the pit and then, every so lady-like, removed the pit from my mouth and swallowed the cherry. And the cycle repeated. Every once in a while, just to mix things up, I would eat a strawberry.
After an hour of conversation, we looked down only to find that the bowl full of cherries had become a bowl full of pits. And I thought about life and cherries and how much the two have in common. Cherries, bright, red sweetness with a hard, ugly pit in the middle. From the outside, the cherry looks beautiful, and it is. As you bite down, the sweetness of the fruit fills your mouth. But then there's the pit. Smack dab in the middle of tastey goodness, your teeth quickly find it. An ugly pit. An interruption, really. And so you chew around it making sure not to swallow it, keeping it at the forefront of your mouth so you can spit it out into a pile of more unwanted pits. But the cherries are so good that a few little pits don't keep you from consuming the cherries anyway. Sure, the pits slow you down, but you begin to expect them. Preapre for them. And after a while, they don't seem like such a bother anymore. Plus, were it not for those pits, the delicious cherries wouldn't exist.
Such is life. Beautiful, lovely, full and then you come across a pit. A hard ugly spot right in the middle of the goodness. And maybe at first it was unexpected. A surprised. Maybe you don't know what to do with it. So you leave it, work around it for a while. And eventually, you realize it is doing you no good so you remove it. But you learn what to look for the next time. You learn to be prepared. You learn how to deal with the pits when you find one and it becomes a little easier. And after a while, you begin to apprecaite the pits because from the pits, something beautiful and delicious is produced. And so, you look at the bowl of pits and you have two options. You can see it as a bowl of pits. A bowl of useless, ugly chewed up hard interruptions, or you look at the bowl of pits and you remember the deliciousness that came from each one. You remember the enjoyment of the sweetness that you consumed. You remember that you actually seperated the bad away from the good rather than consuming the bad with the good. And you learn to apprecaite the season of cherries, even if they come with pits in the middle, because they are only in season for a short while.
So life is like a bowl of cherries. Some days it's the pits, some days it's the cherries. But you take them as they come, one at a time and you work through each one. And though the pits may slow you down, you get rid of them when they appear and you do your best to enjoy the goodness that surrounds them. And, as with most things in life, a bowl full of cherries is sweetest when shared with someone you love.
#137 - A bowl full of cherries.
Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food." - Genesis 1:29
We walked and we talked, and I loved the fact that at 9:00PM there was still plenty of light to guide us along. When we returned to her house, we felt we were due a snack and a glass of tea. Out from the refrigerator came three bowls of fruit. A bowl of cherries, a bowl of strawberries, and a bowl of grapes, each brimming to the top with nature's candy. Nothing says summer better than iced cold tea and sweet fruit. So we grabbed our forks, the ipad and we began a new conversation.
And we talked, and when one took a breath the other one chimed in. And as we talked, we ate. Now, I have to admit that cherries have become my favorite fruit. I love fruit A LOT, so that's really saying something about cherries. I can hardly wait for summer to roll around each year because that means fruit season is in full force. So, I reached into the bowl full of cherries, picked up a cherry, popped the whole thing in my mouth, chewed the outside off of the pit and then, every so lady-like, removed the pit from my mouth and swallowed the cherry. And the cycle repeated. Every once in a while, just to mix things up, I would eat a strawberry.
After an hour of conversation, we looked down only to find that the bowl full of cherries had become a bowl full of pits. And I thought about life and cherries and how much the two have in common. Cherries, bright, red sweetness with a hard, ugly pit in the middle. From the outside, the cherry looks beautiful, and it is. As you bite down, the sweetness of the fruit fills your mouth. But then there's the pit. Smack dab in the middle of tastey goodness, your teeth quickly find it. An ugly pit. An interruption, really. And so you chew around it making sure not to swallow it, keeping it at the forefront of your mouth so you can spit it out into a pile of more unwanted pits. But the cherries are so good that a few little pits don't keep you from consuming the cherries anyway. Sure, the pits slow you down, but you begin to expect them. Preapre for them. And after a while, they don't seem like such a bother anymore. Plus, were it not for those pits, the delicious cherries wouldn't exist.
Such is life. Beautiful, lovely, full and then you come across a pit. A hard ugly spot right in the middle of the goodness. And maybe at first it was unexpected. A surprised. Maybe you don't know what to do with it. So you leave it, work around it for a while. And eventually, you realize it is doing you no good so you remove it. But you learn what to look for the next time. You learn to be prepared. You learn how to deal with the pits when you find one and it becomes a little easier. And after a while, you begin to apprecaite the pits because from the pits, something beautiful and delicious is produced. And so, you look at the bowl of pits and you have two options. You can see it as a bowl of pits. A bowl of useless, ugly chewed up hard interruptions, or you look at the bowl of pits and you remember the deliciousness that came from each one. You remember the enjoyment of the sweetness that you consumed. You remember that you actually seperated the bad away from the good rather than consuming the bad with the good. And you learn to apprecaite the season of cherries, even if they come with pits in the middle, because they are only in season for a short while.
So life is like a bowl of cherries. Some days it's the pits, some days it's the cherries. But you take them as they come, one at a time and you work through each one. And though the pits may slow you down, you get rid of them when they appear and you do your best to enjoy the goodness that surrounds them. And, as with most things in life, a bowl full of cherries is sweetest when shared with someone you love.
#137 - A bowl full of cherries.
Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food." - Genesis 1:29
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