More on love and picking berries. A few more things I discovered while my wife and I picked raspberries and blueberries at the Bock Berry Farm, close to Iowa City, Iowa. When we began, I somehow sensed that a berry patch could teach me some things about love. Nature will grant us insights into life if we will only stop, look and listen. Being mindful of physical things can open the door to spiritual realities.
When we got to Bock’s, we were ushered to one of many raspberry rows, to pick that row. Frankly, we were disappointed with our row. It seemed in between good harvest times; after several feet picked and minutes spent, we only had one quart.
So we decided to pick the other fruit we had come for, blueberries. I had never even seen a blueberry patch, let alone picked from one. What a difference we found between the blueberry and raspberry patches! In an hour, we picked thirteen pounds of blueberries from our assigned row.
The first lesson: there are always other patches, even different fruit to harvest. So don’t lose heart or hope; don’t assume any one patch or relationship will be the only opportunity you will ever get. Other patches, new relationships dwell just ahead, out of sight but not out of reach. There you may find good fruit just waiting to be harvested.
As Kitty and I picked blueberries, moving down the same row across from one another, we kept noticing berries behind us we had missed.
The second lesson: it’s important to keep looking back. It affords us another perspective from which we may discover missed fruit. The only true mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. Reflecting on our past has much to teach us, and as we traverse life’s berry patch, we will see our ourselves differently, and therefore also our past.
When you see good fruit you missed, reach back and pick them from the stilled stems of time. And rather than putting all the fruit into the containers of your memory, taste some berries now and again. They will strengthen you and renew your hope. Your past may yield more fruit for your present than you thought it would when you were going through it.
As we patiently worked our row of blueberries, bending in the humid heat of Iowa in July, we discovered that blueberries further down the row looked even fuller, better. In excited anticipation, we moved down the row. It turned out that these berries were indeed better. Perhaps they had been less picked, being deeper into the row.
The third lesson: sometimes the harvesting gets better, the farther you get into a row, the further you get into a relationship. Patient perseverance can pay off. But you cannot find out until and unless you persevere.
On the other hand, the opposite can prove true. Moving on to ripe readiness can be a better use of your limited time and energy. You can keep working in one section, in one relationship, from which, try though you may, you derive little fruit. Or if another section, another relationship, seems to offer the fruit you have been seeking, you can give it a chance.
You need to gain the wisdom, through your personal experience, to tell when it is time to patiently persevere, or to move on ahead. Though you will make mistakes, trust that there will always be fresh and fruitful berry patches ahead.
Leave a Reply