Abundance....

Yesterday, MyHoney and I took a Sunday drive.  We started at Trader Joes and stocked up on our favorite cereals, breads, meats and cheeses, then we visited my parents farm and loaded my Subaru with fresh pumpkins, squash and produce.As the sun dipped low in the sky, we drove past cow pastures and fields to  Orchard Hill Farm to get apples.  Of course, a visit to Erin and Roberts is not complete without a hot cup of cider and a home-made cider donut.

Once home, I unloaded our treasures and filled the fruit bowl.  The pears and bananas from Trader Joes arranged beautifully with the large, red, shiny Cortland Apples from the apple orchard.  I stood back and admired my good fortune.  There is nothing like a full fruit bowl on my table.  Nothing makes me feel more content, more secure...  a cornucopia of fresh fruit on my table is trully my definition of abundance.

Growing up, a full fruit bowl signified good times.  My mothers kitchen was filled with the spicy smell of pumpkin bread, banana bread, apple pies, and date cookies.  My mother has always kept a fruit bowl on the kitchen counter, and the contents of it signified the state of the household.

During lean times, the fruit bowl may have apples in it that my Dad bartered rutabagas for... it may have some bananas, but oranges, pears and plums were a rare treat.  I remember when we were  little, we would ride in the front seat of my fathers 1965 Ford truck as he delivered rutabagas to market.  Dad would back the truck up to dock, and we would instantly be chilled in the refrigerated warehouse.  We would walk through sheets of plastic that curtained the chilly interior, and our breath hung in front of us like clouds.  After we helped unload a hundred bushel of rutabagas, the warehouse manager would hand each of us an orange - a huge, juicy Florida orange.  I still salivate when I think about the citrus smell of the rind, and the sweet juicy flesh of the fruit dripping down our chins and hands as we devoured our treats on the way home.  It made the ache in my back worth while.

It wasn't until I was much older and out on my own that I started to connect my sense of prosperity and abundance to the state of my fruit bowl.  In my 20's when living off Ramen noodles and Kraft Dinner, I felt gratitude when my dad would hand me a sack of apples for helping him with a day of harvest.  Later, I started to notice my affinity to linger in the produce section of the market, longing over the fresh berries, pears, and plums.  But it wasn't until I was unemployed, down to my last dime, and feeling lower than I had ever felt, that it fully dawned on me.  Sitting at my kitchen table, trying to pay a few meager bills... I saw it.... my empty fruit bowl.  It screamed poverty.  There wasn't even a single apple in it.  I felt sadder than I ever felt.  My fruit bowl is empty ... it's winter... I can't afford to fill it.

Since that day, I won't take having an over flowing fruit bowl for granted.  I admire each shiny apple.  I gaze at the matte finish of the pear, and imagine the sandy sugary texture of it's flesh.  I imagine baking the bananas into bread or sprinkling them with brown sugar and mixing them into hot oatmeal.  I pick up the oranges and remember the chilly warehouse, the friendly warehouse manager, and the plastic curtains on the dock doors.  A full fruit bowl means I am doing something right....


What signifies abundance to you?  What fills your fruit bowl of prosperity?

 


Paradise is Here, Paradise is Now... Paradise is having fruit in my bowl....