Yesterday we had a lovely morning going blueberry picking. Several of us women and children from church went and had a delightful time. There was so much to feel the senses like:
The taste of fresh wild blueberries.
The soft warmth of morning sunshine.
The refreshing breeze of a light wind.
Wild lilies found every so often in the woods.
The squeaky creaky trees swaying above my head.
The soft and cushioned moss under my feet.
A bit of a snack shared with friends on the trail.
The excitement of finding berries.
The birds singing beautifully over head.
The quick poke of a mosquito eating his lunch, and the itch that comes afterwards.
The absolutely gorgeous beauty of harebells.
The quiet times of thinking while picking berries out in the woods.
The sound of two young men practicing their marching skills on the trail. "March, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4 Halt!"
The beauty of the river (the Mississippi) slowly drifting by.
While out in the woods, just sitting and picking and occasionally visiting with whoever was picking nearby there is a lot of time for thinking.
I had fun thinking about the different ways of picking berries. Some people and sometimes we like to just go looking for the big loaded bushes and just ignore the bushes that have only a couple of berries on them. Other people (and other times) just start picking and pick every ripe one the see without spending lots of time looking for the elusive loaded bush. I think generally those that just start picking and don't spend a bunch of time looking for a "Great" spot generally get more berries for their bucket.
I was thinking how life can be like that too. Sometimes it can get easy to always be looking forward to something new and wonderful coming up and rather miss all the joyful times and things that are happening right now. Some kids can't wait until they grow up. Some young adults can't wait until they are married, Some married couples think joy will happen when they finally have kids, Some Mom's just can't wait until their kids are out of diapers or off to school. Sometimes people just go through life looking forward to vacations. And then for what hits a little closer to home for me, sometimes we wish away the time spent doing dishes or folding clothes.
Why do we do that? Why don't we see the joy that we can have right now, right here? I think if we live in the moment and just start being joyful in the little things all the time we are going to have a much fuller bucket of joy in the end. :-)
This month I want to really concentrate on being joyful and enjoying every moment. I am hoping to do quite a bit of blogging about it, sharing verses that are inspiring me, ways that I have found to be more joyful and lessons I am learning. I hope you will join me and that you will share your tips and thoughts too!
"A Joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up bones." Proverbs 17:22
I love shelling peas but I get a lot more for my time and money by growing sugar snaps since you can eat the whole pod. Next year I'll only grow sugar snaps.
My sad little harvest yielded 2 family sized servings of peas- blanched and put in the freezer. I can't imagine the garden space I'd have to devote to peas just to get enough to fill our freezer for the year.
After I was done shelling peas, I started pitting the 12 pounds of cherries I bought on sale for $1.99/lb. It took me 2 hours to pit them all. They filled my largest bowl. In the freezer I put 2- 2 cup bags of whole cherries and 7 - 2cup bags of pureed cherries that I'll make into jam when I have the time. I wish I had more whole cherries frozen. Next year I'll have to buy a few more. I love cherries in my oatmeal.
