Tonight I am grateful for something ridiculously simple: I love the tastes of summer. I am a cherry nut. As soon as the cherry season hits, I overdose on them. Where I lived in California they were abundant and cheap. So far I’ve purchased one bag and it wasn’t cheap. But I can’t help myself. I’ll keep buying them until they are priced out of my ability to purchase them (and even then I might still buy some.) Between cherries and blueberries and strawberries and watermelon I could go nuts from all the delectable fruit. I have yet to go to a farmer’s market out here in the greater DC metro area. One of the things I appreciated about living in the Bay area of Northern California was the easy access to a mind-blowing number and variety of fruits and vegetables. While I suspect I can get some of the same things here as I did there, I imagine there’ll be fewer varieties and higher prices. Nonetheless, I love the taste of summer.
A few weeks ago for the Memorial Day holiday weekend at my sister Sandy’s house we cooked up and ate barbecued ribs and chicken, baked beans, potato salad, deviled eggs, pies and cakes. Why do we eat those things only in summer? Part of me understands that we eat things like potato salad and deviled eggs in the summer because they are cold foods and summer is hot. Summer is not a time to eat chili (though I make chili with regularity, even in the summer.) And of course most of my favorite fruits–especially cherries–are not available at any other time of the year. So the next two months I’ll be savoring all that I can of these wonderful treats. William Shakespeare used the phrase, “and summer’s lease hath all too short a date...” And in this I must agree with him. Before you know it, it’s all over and instead of cherries and watermelon cubes and potato salad under the warm summer sun, it’ll be hot apple cider and caramel apples and chili under the brilliant colors and cool, short autumn afternoons.
I am grateful for the simple things; the things that don’t require a lot of time and thought and preparation. Like driving along with my sister laughing and talking as we enjoyed a beautiful summer day. Like eating cherries by the handful and enjoying the various flavors of summer. Like connecting with people you love for a variety of reasons, even when you’re helping them pull weeds or listening to them as they pour their heart out over some challenge they’re facing. Everywhere I look, everywhere I go, everything I do I find myself surrounded by reasons to be grateful. And so I am. I choose to be grateful every day, expressing my thanks to God, the Universe for more blessings than I can measure. Sometimes I can express my gratitude in clear, articulate and comprehensible ways, and other times I am less so, but one thing you can count on: I’m going to keep trying. And for me, that is a very good thing.
