I don’t have a green thumb, sometimes I wish I did/think I should (both my mom & sis have gorgeous greenery tucked in every nook throughout their homes and my dad is a wizard outdoors, (he spent much of his younger days taking care of a nursery) but I can’t get over the little flying bugs that come along with growing things inside, and I never know how much water is too much or too little, is it turning yellow because it’s dried up or drowned out?!? My mom insists I can do it and will often send me home with cuttings or little babies baby off of her plants, she always believes in me as moms always do, but we both know inevitably I will kill it.
Lesson: Plants are beautiful, but maybe aren’t my thing and that’s ok.
It’s always Honeycrisps, always, 100% of the time, there were even years when the supply was so small at MN orchards (this was before you could walk into any store and get them anytime of year) that the growers would only allow us to have 1 bag!
Lesson: More things, not just apples should be handled this way, always making sure everyone gets a little, so no one person gets a lot.
This year the Sweet Tangos were beyond belief, crisp and so insanely sweet, that when we tasted a honey right afterwards, it tasted like flavorless crunchy water!
Lesson: Give different things a chance, don’t always stick with the usual because it’s your usual, you might just miss out on the sweetest thing.
We ate apples, mailed caramel ones to our girl in MA, shared a piece of pecan pie in the front seat (eaten with a broken plastic fork, found in the glove box) and we saw the most amazing roses ♥
Lesson: You can close your eyes and live blindly or you can keep them open, appreciate the work that needs to be done and try and spread good as far as you can.
I don’t often do BIG things in BIG ways, but I do a lot of tiny things in subtle ways. I’ve found as I get older I need a bit more magnification, a closer look and because I found the cutest reading glasses, I needed to stitch up a just as cute fabric holster for them to live in and because all of this made me feel very much like an adult, I channeled my 6th grade self and bought some scented lip gloss in a little tin. Strangest thing that little lip balm, you would think “Original Bubble” would mean bubble gum right? Wrong, it smells just like Mr. Bubble the bubble bath, SO WEIRD and yet weirdly appealing!
Lesson: It’s ok to act/feel like a kid sometimes (like with lip gloss), but when it comes to BIGGER things, you need to be a BIGGER person, looking for all the things that make us alike, understanding that the differences are what make us better and welcoming all of it into our humanity is what will ultimately make us whole. Each of us evolving, growing, becoming more self-aware, knowing what we do (even sometimes tiny things) can have a good/bad impact on everything, everyone, everywhere. We need to push the buttons of possibility in all of us, for the good of all of us. Just because you are the loudest doesn’t mean you are right and just because like-minded cruelty/humor gets you laughter doesn’t mean it’s right and just because you don’t understand, doesn’t mean you can’t be understanding. Be your truest self always, because it’s the person you choose to be when no one is there to notice, that will define you. The nostalgia of the way things used to be is fine for postcards (and lip gloss) but in order to grow and be great we need to actually respect, allow and welcome change.
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