Peaches. Wet, succulent and sometimes so sweet they are better than chocolate. I learned a lot about peaches in Texas. I made this amazing discovery in the Hill Country outside of Fredericksburg. I had no idea that there were two basic types of peaches: Clingstone and Freestone. Freestone is my favorite because it means the fruit doesn’t get stuck to the pit. Of course the Clingstone does just the opposite. I have to suck and suck on the seed to get all of the peach off the pit and often I just give up and spit it out.
I think life is too often like a Clingstone peach. I want things to go smoothly like biting into a ripe, juicy and delicious Freestone peach but that rarely happens. That is one of the great disillusionments about life. Perhaps we were sold a bill of goods about how life is supposed to go. I am not sure where we learned this but at least I did. Of course I could have looked around as a child and realized that things were messy, people were unhappy, sudden and unexpected crisis hit and no one was immune. But reality was drowned out by everything from fairy tales to the thirty-minute television show where all problems were solved in a half an hour.
But there is something about Clingstone peaches that, despite an inability to cleanly eat the entire fruit without the mess, they are tasty. They may be frustrating but they are good. So is life. Despite the challenges, the sudden and unexpected disasters and the way things turn out differently than was planned, life is good and rich and full of surprising delight. So instead of complaining, I think I’ll just enjoy.
Until next time,
Darrel+
So awesome… It really DOES feel like a bill of goods sometimes. You nailed that emotion, Darrel. XO