This weekend I was at the Rocking X Ranch, having my own retreat with my husband. Across the creek from this group of chairs is a long and wide patch of blackberry bushes, partly visible in this photo. The blackberries were ripe, and so of course we picked all we could reach.
I always learn from picking blackberries. Here were the lessons they taught me this time:
1. Blackberry juice is a powerful and brilliant dye.
2. Greed can hurt you.
3. Overreaching is not always a wise idea.
4. Cost benefit analysis can be done very quickly. (Are there enough berries in there to justify climbing in and risking more scratches?)
5. Sometimes your harvest falls apart in your hands, and in such cases the best move is to eat and enjoy.
6. You may think you’ve looked hard, but coming back in the other direction, more abundance may be revealed.
7. You never know what planting one vine may create down the line. (Jon’s mother swears the whole patch started from one she planted years ago.)
8. On a given day your crop may look meager, but by the very next day you may have abundance.
9. Gratitude makes the eating sweeter.
10. Look under. Look up. Look between. Look around. Look ahead and look back. Expect to find and bring a large container.
11. Persistence pays.
12. A pie made from what you pick will be the very best.
13. Nature gives and gives and gives.
