Lesson From a Farmers Market

It never ceases to amaze me how many valuable lessons can be learned throughout our everyday life if we only open ourselves up to the possibility of a street education. Lately I have been more open than usual apparently, as I have learned to enriching lessons while out and about. I already wrote one about my experience at Walmart and learning to take time to engage people in meaningful ways. Recently, I experienced an additional learning opportunity while shopping at my local farmers market.

So there I am wandering around my local open air farmers market with money to burn and goat cheese to buy. I was hitting each stall dreaming of all of the amazing dishes I was going to make with my new found treasures and enjoying a lovely day. There was one particular vegetable and fruit stand on the corner of two aisles that I stopped across from to go over my purchases and make sure I had not overlooked anything I wanted to buy. While standing across from this particular stand, I noticed some apples fall off of the side of one of the tables due to a customer being a bit careless when picking through them. To my surprise, the customer doesn’t even try to pick any of the fallen apples up and just walks away. A small lady shopping nearby begins to pick up the apples and has to dodge the heavy foot traffic as she methodically captures the runaway fruit. Not one person stopped to help her and it amazed me the tenacity she exhibited in gathering someone else’s fruit that she had no part in dispersing.

I also noted that she had an ear to ear grin on her face as she was doing this and even laughed a little as she ran down the wayward apples. I made my way across the flow of foot traffic to help her gather them, but she finished up just as I made it to her side. I said, “That was one great show. What was so funny about it?” She replied, “Up until about three weeks I was stuck in a wheelchair due to an auto accident and I was just so happy to be able to scurry along and grab all of these apples that it made me smile!” She went on to explain how during her accident and recovery that multitudes of family, friends, and strangers reached out to help her and now she goes out of her way to help anyone she can, even if it is just picking up some stray produce. We finished talking and she walked away, apparently in search of another vendor who needed rescuing.

As I went back to my car and during my drive home I begin to ponder what I had seen and what she had told me. There is some amazing knowledge to be shared in her word and deed. How much better would be off if we took the time to help others, even in minor things? How much better would food taste, how much cleaner the air feel, how much more satisfaction would we experience if we could find joy in a servant attitude towards our daily lives? Seeing her be thankful for mobility and wanting to give back made me want to be a better person and to seek out ways to help others, even in the small things. You never know what you may learn on your next trip to the farmers market!