I remember a number of years ago, in what seems like a lifetime ago, my best friend and I used to go berry picking. Oh, how I dreaded it at times! Geeze, by the time mid summer came, I had SO MANY scratches on my legs!! They ranged from the annoying, tiny, superficial ones to deep gouges. And then we had our “secret” spots that had their own set of dangers besides the thorns.
One time I accidentally stepped in a woodchuck hole and twisted my ankle pretty bad. On another trip she was picking berries and felt something like a sting followed by another and another until suddenly she's yelping like crazy while ripping her clothes off and running away with her arms flailing in the air. Come to find out, she had been standing right on top of a fire ant hill and they weren't to pleased. Thankfully we were on a private path where no one beside myself saw this hysterical spectacle!
After all was said and done, the berries washed, and our wounds cleaned and bandaged, we ended up with wonderful jelly, sweet treats, tasty snacks, and even a little wine. Our first batch ended up more like moonshine, but I digress. Every time I moaned and groaned I forgot about the rewards that went along with my battle scars.
In order to enjoy good, homemade blackberry or raspberry pie, jam, tarts, and so on, you need to go out and pick the berries. Anybody who's been berry picking either as a kid or even as an adult knows that to get that sweet fruit you need to watch out for the thorns. Of course no matter how careful we are we can still get snagged by the branch we don't see, step into the covered woodchuck hole or, Heaven forbid, stand on the unnoticed fire ant hill. The same is true in life.
Sometimes in life, to reach a goal we gotta go through some rough, even thorny patches. We may get a little bit up, step in some “stuff” or get a little dirty to make it to our sweet reward. The important thing to keep in mind is to keep going. If the worst thing that happens is that we snag our clothing, get a couple scratches or sprain an ankle, well that's ok. We can always bandage or patch that stuff up. Dirt washes away, wounds do heal, and we still survive. At the end of the day we can put our feet up, slice up a piece of pie with a little whipped cream too, lick our wounds and unwind knowing that all of our hard work wasn't in vain. This exact philosophy can be applied to all life experiences. Perhaps we can even look back on the times we got scratched up, bit up, or stepped in "stuff” and are able to have a little chuckle at our own expense.
Can you think of any times when you were going thru a prickly, thorny mess and were rewarded with some type of gift when you made it thru? Nya:weh Hoje:no’kda’oh. Agwadë:nö:k - Thank You Creator. We Are All Related.