Raspberries

     Hello all!  I don’t know about any of you, but I’ve had one of the most fun, productive, and wonderful summers of my life so far.  But for some reason, I woke up a few days ago feeling very lonely.  I had no reason to feel lonely.  I just did.  Usually if I read something inspirational and meditate I feel much better.  But this particular morning it did nothing for me.  So I walked out to the garden and picked myself a fresh bowl of raspberries to have for breakfast and start my day.

     As I sat down at the kitchen table to eat my raspberries and cream I still couldn’t shake the funk I was in.  So I just sat there staring into that bowl of raspberries.  All of a sudden, the bowl of raspberries seemed to come alive!  The bowl, the berries, the cream…it all seemed to want to tell me something.  And tell me, it did! 

     I thought of where everything comes from and the processes involved before it ends up on my kitchen table, ready to be consumed in a very short amount of time.  Planting, tending, picking, and preserving all the food that comes from our garden takes a tremendous amount of time and effort.  But then I have the privilege of being able to just walk out and pick fresh raspberries for my breakfast. 

     For those who don’t have a garden, the process is more complex.  I, like most of you, don’t have a cow that I can just go out to milk to get fresh cream.  Nor did I make the bowl that my breakfast was in.  In fact, more than 99.9% of the things I have and am surrounded by are because of the efforts of many, many people.  Most of these things came from stores.  These stores were designed and built by people.  People have to be employed in them once they’re finished.  The products that built these stores, and then all the products that go in them to sell came from other people and places all over the world.  They had to be transported by planes, ships, trains, trucks.  These vehicles are designed, built, and driven by people.

     These products also came from other living creatures and things.  The cream in my bowl, the meat in the freezer, all of our food, the leather on my couch, the wood that built our house and furniture, the cotton in the pajamas I was wearing.  It all came from living things from the earth that were now nurturing and sustaining me.  Not only has this all happened to sustain me, but everyone and every living thing that has ever been.  We may think that we can be self-sufficient, but that’s absolutely impossible.  Without oxygen that comes from plants we could not even take our next breath.  And without God, there would be no breath.  Adam came to life when God breathed into him.

     I felt a part of the entire universe, part of all time throughout eternity.  I have always been, and will always be, connected to everyone and everything.  There is nothing that can ever separate us one from the other.  I may feel lonely at times, even for no reason at all.  But I am never, ever alone. 

     Who would have thought that such insight could come from staring at a bowl of raspberries and cream because I felt lonely?  LIFE IS GOOD!

Blessings to all of you,
Arlis