Learning Some Life Lessons: Have I Finally Got It?

As long as we are alive, life presents us with opportunities to learn life lessons. Sometimes these are huge and come at a great personal and emotional cost, and times they are rather inconsequential in the whole scheme of things, but just like the little foxes that ruin the grapes, even an in inconsequential event can have a big effect on how we feel about ourselves.

I have had some experiences recently of the more inconsequential variety that have taught me a couple of lessons:

Three times a week I eat for breakfast, along with the homemade yogurt I regularly eat, a serving of frozen mixed fruit with berries (raspberries, blackberries, and sometimes blueberries) that has been thawed. The thawed berries produce quite a bit of juice at the bottom of the bowl.

Twice last month I went to town to pick up the mail after eating my breakfast and came home to find that I had dribbled purple berry juice on my chin. Both times I met people at the post office and visited with them, so they had plenty of opportunity to observe that my face was dirty.

After the second embarrassing episode I learned life lesson 1:

Always check my face after I eat the fruit and before I leave the house. Always. No exceptions

And I have done so, and that hasn’t happened again.

On Saturday we had chopped spinach as one of the vegetables for our evening meal. I play the piano for a contemporary service at a local church, and so about 45 minutes after we finished eating, I changed my clothes, went into the bathroom, looked at my face in the mirror, and combed my hair, and left.

When I got home, my dearly beloved greeted me as I walked in and said something funny that made me smile, and then he started laughing and wanted to know did I realize I had spinach in my teeth? Had I done much smiling or laughing at the meeting?

No I didn’t know…. and yes I did. Of course I did—well, perhaps not laughing but certainly talking and smiling.

And then we had an interesting discussion about how people will not tell you when something like that is wrong.

To say I felt embarrassed about the spinach in my teeth doesn’t quite cover it. 

So life lesson 2:

Always brush my teeth before I leave the house. Always. No exceptions.

Today it was once again a day for a frozen fruit with berries for breakfast This morning before I left the house I did not forget to inspect my face in the mirror (it was clean), and I remembered to brush my teeth, and when I did, I observed blackberry seeds stuck in my front teeth.

Whew!!!

To quote Professor Henry Higgins: By George, she's got it! By George she's got it!

A little change of plan.

Today is our anniversary and we had big plans. We were going to go to the Big City, do a bit of bulk buying at the big box store, go to the art museum, have a late lunch at a wonderful Mediterranean restaurant that serves good Italian and Greek food (spinach spanakopita to die for), and then go see a movie.

And then early in the week my dearly beloved went on a hunting-and-gathering expedition and severely twisted his knee when part of him turned and the other didn’t, and so we thought we had better change the plan.

I am very thankful that his knee is much better and not all that disappointed that we stayed home. As much as I enjoy the art museum, which is really quite a good one for a smaller big city, we are usually thoroughly exhausted by the time we arrived back home. 

We went to the movie last night at a local theater and saw the Pixar film Inside Out, which is a wonderful cartoon for adults. It has gotten amazing reviews, and rightly so. Some of the funniest parts of the movie occur during the closing credits. There is a scene involving cats that is hilarious.

And today, instead of driving 2 hours for Mediterranean food, we will drive 15 minutes down the road for good Mexican food.

I married him 44 years ago...

and I am very happy that I did.

Flying Purple Berry Eaters

 

Mulberry trees grow here with abandon, and indeed, some consider them a “weed tree.” The fruit comes in various colors – we have trees on our property that produce white fruit and those that produce purple fruit. There is a tree with white fruit near the fork of our driveway and there is a purple one not too far from the back door.

The fruit is just starting to ripen.

 The mulberries do indeed resemble berries–blackberries in particular–and they have a mild, pleasant taste. For a few years after we first moved here, I attempted to make jam out of them. I even got instructions from the Agricultural Extension Service on how to do it, but what I ended up with was mulberry syrup. Which tasted fine on pancakes, but I eventually decided that standing out there and picking the fruit and then processing it was not worth the time and effort.

The big birds—Jays, Robins, and Brown Thrashers—and the small birds—Cedar Waxwings and Wrens—and all the others in between love the mulberries and they flock to the trees to gobble them up and carry them off to feed their babies

What goes in eventually comes back out, and a lot of it ends up on the cars.

Purple bird poop…and it is not a pretty sight.