getting the raspberries 293/366

 I have a small raspberry patch. Well, it isn't so much a patch as it is a few plants I put in years ago and they keep reproducing themselves. I keep it weeded (mostly) and pruned and try to pick the berries as they ripen. Sometimes I've not done well with that and the fruit and my labor to keep the plants healthy, has gone to waste. 

Occasionally while I'm working in the yard I'll pick a few berries and pop them into my mouth for a refreshing, delicious snack. My main motivation for continuing to care for them though? 

My grandchildren. They get so much enjoyment from running to the patch to see if there are any berries ripe, and I get such enjoyment from watching their faces when I tell them there are berries ready to be picked that I don't have any plans to pull the plants even though it would be easier to put in grass seed and mow there.

The plants yield two "crops". It's nearing the end of the second and I am pleased with my discipline of checking and picking berries as they ripen. There are never enough to do anything but eat them right then or freeze them. This is today's picking:

I added them to the stash in the freezer. A few at a time now equals almost a quart. Enough to make a good cobbler, probably for Christmas. 

When I looked at the berries I picked today and the accumulation, I thought about how raspberry picking at my house is like life. Enjoyment comes where you find it. Keeping relationships healthy and growing takes some effort and intentionality and there may be briars attached to the things that bear fruit. Some items in my home are not things I keep around for myself, but rather for the use and pleasure of others. 

In my spiritual life I need to take care of what I've been given and continue doing the next right thing, even when it seems there is no way it can make a difference or be used for a greater purpose. I've lived long enough to become convinced that nothing done for God is too small to be insignificant. He seems to delight in taking whatever I bring Him (a few berries) and add His touch (flour, sugar, milk, baking powder and butter and heat) to make something far more satisfying than I ever could on my own, and there's always more than enough goodness to share when He's involved.