Yesterday, we took a ride to Angola, NY to pick strawberries. For me, this is an activity with benefits far and wide…
Outdoors, easy pickings, no thorns, intermittent sunshine with billowy clouds offering bits of respite from the heat of the afternoon.
Good exercise, (I cannot kneel since my knee replacements) so it’s plenty of stretching as I catch a glimpse of yet another cluster of shiny red goodness peeking out from under a cover of green…
Berry picking is a mindful practice for me. I value the opportunity it gives me to be productive, yet relaxed… purposeful, yet aimless… committed, yet stress-free.
I can pick as many or as few as I wish.
This time we gathered 8 quarts in under an hour! They were not humongous, but their sweetness more than compensated for size and might.
Picking also returns me to my childhood, as it is as ageless an activity as I can think of!
I may not have been as eager to pick in the heat when I was 9 or 10 years old, but the knowledge that if we picked enough, Mom would make homemade strawberry ice-cream when we got home, was enough to push me on, for the ‘greater good!’
Another even sweeter memory… picking with my 80-something-year- old Gramma, cane and all… Then coming back to the house and being coached on how to make the BEST jam ever…
Everyone needs a healing practice (or two) especially in these trying times…
May you find what touches you for the good, what brings you joy, what brings you peace, what makes you well…
And may it sustain you for the gift that it is at this moment in your life…