Raspberry bushes are amazing things. You can plant 2-3 spindly little bushes and end up with a whole crop of beautiful berries in relatively few years. In my kids youth, I'd send them and any neighbor kids around off with a Cool Whip or margarine tub to pick what they can. We never spray them, so the kids would happily pop them in their mouths as they picked. Occasionally they got a taste of the little black bugs that seem to love to inhabit the berries.
In much the same way I let many of sources of enjoyment slide in the two years I had stretched my mental and physical capacity to their ends, I've sort of let the raspberry bushes go. But darn if the buggers, having not been cleaned up at the end of summer the last two years, still found a way to grow strong and hardy through the brandly trees that started taking root amongst them. I picked my first 1/2 cup last night. 
To get all philosophical, those bushes in an odd sort of way, make me think about the person who no matter how little external care and feeding they receive, seem to find the way to persevere. I have twinges of a raspberry kind of life. I Like to think I am a fighter. I have had my share of spindly trees, blocking my growth, and yet I worked to nudge myself around them. I'll need to get up early before the heat kicks in for the next two weeks and get the berries picked. By Sunday morning, I should start to get a quart every couple days. We will eat some fresh, and I will make jam. We'll enjoy the sweet taste of summer in the cold of winter. But this fall, I'm going to get the weedy clutter pulled and give my friends a nice organized path to grow even stronger next spring.
I like the raspberry cane metaphor! Yes, we can neglect areas of our life, but with a bit of luck, they survive the lean times and are there to be enjoyed when we are ready. xx
ReplyDeleteDespite the weeds, but actually, I have a crop of weeds growing within the raspberry canes that have some of the most beautiful flowers. I wonder if I am not reaping the benefits from some wildflower seeds I tried several years ago, but didn't rleally take. Perhsp another metaphor m ight be in the making.
ReplyDeleteI love your analogy and I too, feel as if no one was there to nurture me. I have found that as I get older I see myself being more kind to me. It makes more sense for me to give me what I need than to hope that someone else will be good to me.
ReplyDeleteI agree that if we are not kind to ourselves, others, knowingly or oblivious, tune out what our needs are. To get sappy again, those hard earned berries are sometimes the sweetest though.
ReplyDeleteI've been finding myself lately, quickly reading through a blog post and thinking something like, "I really liked that" but then not being able to gather words to leave a comment. This was one of those. I really liked this post when I read it a week ago but I couldn't think of anything to say. So this is it :)
ReplyDeleteThank you and I know what you mean. I do the same then someone else will have the right words, so it sounds odd to also comment almost the same sentiments. No worries on my end-I appreciate that you read my posts when it works for your time. My daughter just picked a bunch, but she didn't want to go "deep" because of the pokers so I'll do more picking later.
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