Life lessons from an evening of Raspberry picking.
Life lessons from an evening of raspberry picking.
My kids and I went raspberry picking last week. It’s one of our much-loved summer rituals. But this time it was different. Not only did we pick the most raspberries ever (7 lbs!), we also picked up some beautiful life lessons along the way.
Everyone always starts with an empty bucket.
Upon reaching the farm, my kids and I were given buckets to start picking. I got the biggest size, a bit more than a gallon, and the kids got smaller ones. As we commenced our picking in the intoxicatingly fragrant fields, we were excited, but also, truthfully, overwhelmed. Raspberries are tiny, and as we found out very soon, more make their way into your tummy than into the bucket! We were eating some and picking some, struggling to fill even the floors of our buckets, when we heard another ‘picker’ announce to his friend that he had filled his whole bucket. Wow! And that’s when it struck me - we all start off with an empty bucket, in life as well. The secret to filling it is to keep going, keep persisting, and soon enough, you will have your very own filled bucket! Just like we did 2.5 hours later! 😅
If you fail, start over.
My 7-year-old was putting more raspberries in his tummy than in his bucket! So it took him a long time to fill his bucket to about a third. And then, the inevitable happened. He accidentally tipped his bucket and lost most of his berries. I held my breath, thinking there would be a meltdown. But, no, he just kept calm and carried on, putting more berries into his bucket than his tummy this time! And I think I know why.
Enjoy the journey; take your time to truly appreciate it.
Yes, we have all heard this saying countless times. But how often have you actually done so? My son did while picking raspberries. He was in no rush to fill his bucket. He was loving the experience - popping sweet plump berries into his mouth right off the bush (no washing needed!), wading through the maze of bushes, exploring on his own and stumbling upon some strawberry-lemonade berries(!), listening to the sound of a train passing by, talking, telling stories, watching the golden sunset in silence and awe…That’s why he wasn’t upset when his bucket had tipped. The experience was so beautiful and magical that he didn’t mind doing it all over again. He was there for the experience, the journey. The destination was just a nice-to-have.
Stay humble and be blessed.
You know the secret to hitting the ‘jackpot’ when picking berries? Bend down, squat. The best berries and the biggest clusters of them are always low to the ground. Most people miss them because they are picking from the top. But if you get down low to the ground, you will hit the jackpot. Just like in life, humility yields the biggest blessings. Those who are humble and kind are often also the most blessed and blissful of souls.
The world is Abundant.
There were quite a few families picking berries that evening. Each family would choose a row to start picking berries from and then comb through the bushes on both sides of the row. We would pick through the bushes slowly and carefully, picking all the ripe berries we spotted. After which, we would move on to another row. As we moved onto new rows, other families would make their way to the row we just picked from, and I would think, ‘How are they going to find anything? We just picked every ripe berry there!’ But lo and behold, they would always find enough to fill their buckets. That’s when I realized how abundant the world was, how abundant Mother Nature truly is. Mother Nature takes care to display and hide her gifts in such a way that all her benefactors (humans, bugs, animals, etc) can enjoy them. There is no need to rush to claim everything. There will always be enough for all of us.
A rainy morning in the garden..and some learnings.
When you live in an arid place where summers are always dry and brown, rain is like a gift from the gods. It makes you leap out of bed in the mornings, and your whole day could be designed around it. Today was one such beautiful morning. I headed into the garden to breathe in that earthy smell and to feel the cleansing of these drops from heaven.
As I was picking beans for lunch from my bean teepee, a few thoughts came to me:
When you share your gifts with the world, you will prosper and thrive. If you don’t, you will be destroyed.
A strong statement there, eh? But look at the beans - anyone familiar with growing them knows that beans must be harvested every single day when they are ripe, else the plant will go to seed and die. But if you are diligent about picking beans daily, how vigorously they will grow and thrive! A bean plant must share its gifts, the beans, with the world to keep it growing and alive. So must we. We each have a gift (or two or more!) that we are meant to share with the world. It’s only then that we will prosper and shine and grow into our highest selves. If we don’t, we will shrivel up from the inside and die. But what if you aren’t ready? What if you think your gifts aren’t prepared?
Most veggies taste best when they are picked before they reach maturity.
I grow a lot of food in my garden and have often noticed how tender, delicate, and delicious the veggies taste when I pick them before their full maturity. If I get greedy and wait for them to grow bigger, they lose their tenderness and develop a woody taste. Very often, we humans hesitate to share our gifts and talents with the world - we may not feel ready, we may think we haven’t honed our gifts to perfection. But, maybe, when our gifts aren’t completely polished, when they still have some rawness, some vulnerability, that they are most beautiful, most authentic? So don’t wait, friends - share your gifts as they are. At every stage, they will have something lovely to offer.
What you may see as old, ugly, and fallow may be someone’s favorite perch.
We are growing many sunflowers in our garden; this year, they have all grown big, beautiful, and strong. But just as with the cycle of life, as new flowers blossom, the older ones wither and die out. We like keeping our garden natural and wild, so we aren’t big on pruning out dead branches or flowers. There was one sunflower plant near the bean teepee that had some new blossoms and some dead ones. There was one dead stem that had bent over, and on it sat a precious hummingbird. After drinking from many scarlet runner bean flowers, it had chosen this dead, bent-over stem to perch on. From there, it watched the world around it. I wondered then, what if we had pruned out these old stems? What great perches would be lost? When I shared this observation with my family, my 7-year-old commented on another use of the dried sunflowers. He said it was those flowers that dropped their seeds and caused more beautiful sunflowers to grow. Wow. Aren’t these old, dry branches, flowers, and stems much like the elders in our lives? They have so much to give - so much knowledge, so much wisdom, so many wonderful stories to share that someday, these stories, this wisdom could be the very perch we need someday. And when the elders in our families interact with the youngest ones, they can be planting seeds that will help them grow into strong, beautiful beings full of wisdom. So let’s honor them, value them, and keep them in our lives instead of pruning them out of it.
