The Fruits of Our Labor

The Fruits of Our Labor

The Real Price of Values

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Galatians 6:7KJV

This summer we picked these peaches in our back yard.  We were so shocked at the quality of the fruit and how abundant they were.  Now a little backstory for you all, (our other house burned down) we’ve only lived in our present home since 2009.  I remember vividly, how there were so many different fruit trees all around our yard.  There was never any need to buy fruit from the store, unless you just wanted to try something different or new. We had grapevines, strawberry bushes, cinnamon trees, plum trees, muscadine trees, apple trees, and a walnut tree, all in one yard! No one tended to these trees or anything, the fruit simply grew wild and was ours for the taking.  I remember how the muscadines would stain our lips and we would pretend it was lipstick (because that was as close to makeup as we were going to get). Our house was atop a hill and we had to walk down the driveway for everything! It seemed like it took forever to go to the mailbox and to take the trash out.  We would be picking up the mail and just grab a piece of fruit off the tree, never breaking stride.  In our youth, we never knew it was a blessing to have such an assortment of nourishment right at our fingertips.  As time passed and we got older, we forgot about the fruit.  We never traveled to the backyard for plums or to the side yard for grapes from the vine. When we checked the mail, we were so concerned about bills and worldly happenings, that when the apple tree leaves waved at us, begging for attention, our eyes never parted from the depressing paper clutched in our hands.  Slowly but surely, the fruit stopped growing, and one day when we looked up, there were no strawberries in the bushes, the grapevines had all but withered and fell away, the muscadine trees had been cut down by greedy lumber yards and left barren and bereft of life.  I felt the tears well up in my eyes, not only for the loss of such uncommon beauty, but because it happened while we were all present, yet absent at the same time.  No one came and robbed us, no we stood by and blindly watched as more and more of the gifts we had been blessed with, faded into nothing more than poignant memories.  The same lands that had been a constant source of life-giving nourishment, had finally bared fruit for the last time. Isn’t it funny how nature knows when it’s no longer wanted or needed? When we stopped picking the fruits from the trees and using it for what it was given for, then the trees stopped producing.  It stopped when the fruit started being left on the ground, strewn any and everywhere, instead of in Mason jars being used at the Sunday morning breakfast table, spread across a hot, fresh, buttered biscuit.  When making preserves and jellies became too much of a headache, we instead bought them from the stores.  When the lessons passed from Mother to Daughter, while boiling the jars for the jam, became not as important, because she could just buy the jam, and the she would learn the lessons of life soon enough without you having to teach it to her.  We stopped sowing the seeds that the ones before us knew we would need in life, thus we reaped just what we sowed. We sowed substitution for the real thing, and in return we got a less than product.  Sure some ways are easier, but does that make it better?  Yes, it is much easier to go to the local supermarket and pick up some jam or jelly and bring it home, but some things in life can’t be bought with money or by doing things the easy way, they must be taught with temperance, love, and with finesse, that comes from really taking the time to give proper instruction.  Can you imagine sitting a child down trying to explain a life lesson over a jar of Smucker’s that you just bought from Walmart? But I’ll bet you could see setting down at the table explaining life or giving instruction, while showing how to stir the fruit concoction just right to prevent it from burning and how to tell when it’s the perfect consistency.  You may have been saying the exact same things, but the second example shows the care taken to make sure you know how to do the task properly, and most importantly it shows that you care enough not to substitute fake and easy, for real and genuine. Nowadays, we pick the peaches in the backyard, and even if we don’t want them, we pass them to someone who does. That’s what you do with blessings, pass them along. These are my personal memories.  They are so important because I can’t take someone to that place and they automatically see the lush fruit trees or the lazy wheat blowing on the breeze.  Now all they will see is an overgrown, desolate patch of land, with burnt grass and broken limbs, a lot of this came from the fire, but most came from trading in natural blessings for a more modern world. 

As I come to a close, I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to read this blog.  I would say “my blog” but I feel like it’s “our” blog.  I want you to feel like you’ve just come home every time you stop by.  So by all means, come in, take your shoes off, and let’s talk for a while…

P.S.

If you have some topics that you would like to see discussed, then drop us a line on facebook, a tweet on Twitter, a letter by email, or note tied to a carrier pigeon’s foot…however you reach us, we’ll just be glad you did. Email Me: southernkiss@thecottondiaries.com