Photo quote de jour


To say I'm not an early bird is an understatement. And yet every so often I wake up before the first birds begin singing, like today. Every insomniac knows the no man’s land between getting back to sleep after waking up too early. There’s a window of opportunity to slip back under and if you miss the boat, too bad. You can either lie there aware of the room growing brighter by the minute or brush aside the fatigue and get up. I chose to get up this morning and wander in the dewy stillness of the garden with my cat Merlin, both of us sniffing the cooler air in all directions. It smelled of lush Midsummer, the air heavy with the promise of rain. A haze lifted over the field of day lilies curled into orange smiles. Birds chattered. All was well despite my leaden sleep deprived limbs. Every step lightened with nature's tonic. 

I examined the raspberry bushes to select ripe ones for breakfast.

Berry picking is a meditation. Move too fast and the sharp thorns prick you into awareness. A deeper color indicates ripeness but not always. My fingertips touched each berry Braille-like and gently nudging them between my thumb and forefinger. The berry tells me if it’s ready. It’s more about allowing than plucking. The slightest resistance means the berry is not ready and is still bitter. Each of us is growing through various cycles of ripening. Each stage is exactly where we need to be. You can’t hasten the ripening. With patience, everything bitter eventually turns sweet.