Sunday, August 12, 2012

On the other hand...

Alongside the cherry bullets, I now have a half-flat of blueberries, perfect little BBs of frozen Oregon sunshine. (Incidentally, I read somewhere recently that 'Oregon Blueberry' is one of those things that can command two or three times the price in China as any other kind of blueberry, American or not. Good taste, across the Pacific.)

But I wonder, as I happily fill up the new freezer that resides in the garage, and feel a sense of making good use of a long summer night, I stop. I wonder. Am I being 100% an ant - working hard, thinking about and planning for bad weather, studiously saving up - but failing to have any of the grasshopper in me - playing music, enjoying berries now, savoring the short NW summer?

A good friend recently pointed out that one of my "triggers" is listmaking. (A good "trigger", of course, is something that sets us into a spiral of patterned, unconscious and unhealthy behavior.) A very good observation, and reminder that I have to be careful to not put too much effort into the list, to sticking to the list, to prioritizing the list instead of the truly important people, needs, and moments around me. So today, I am happy to have a gallon of frozen blueberries.

And rather than think about getting more to wash, freeze and bag up this week, I'm turning back to my current book (My Antonia) and finishing off the last bit of Chardonnay (Rock Horse Ranch). A little ant. A little grasshopper.

1 comment:

  1. Me, I'm just hoping I'm not too late, that somewhere near me there is a farm who can sell me more Oregon blueberries, because the couple of gallon bag fulls I have in the freezer are not enough, not nearly enough. I'm not sure if list-making is a trigger, per se, for me...but it's definitely a thing. And I feel good, really good, when I get to erase things off the chalkboard in my kitchen where I keep my list.

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