With the immediate combination grunt of "oh" and "ugh," I fell to my knees on the hot, black parking lot to rescue the tumbling, scattering blueberries I had just purchased. My right knee (having just injured the ligaments and tendons days before) quickly reminded me that this squat retrieval position would definitely cost an endurance of pain. Nevertheless, in my mind, it was quickly evident that there could be only one possible response to this difficult dilemma.
After all, it was to save two pounds of blueberries--TWO POUNDS! The cost alone of those berries impelled me to save them --over $6. I realized the loss of 1/3 of them seemed minimal compared to the value of the many other grocery items I had purchased. Yet, there they lay contaminated by all that had touched that same rainy pavement. So much for organic!
I contemplated just leaving them to the torture of the tires. But to me, they appeared still usable. They weren't totally ruined or smashed--a mere tumble. Couldn't they just be washed off? After all, that's what I would need to do anyway before eating them: a good washing.
Honestly, some of the compulsion to save them was because they were my grocery extravagance. No one else used or wanted them or even recognized their presence in the fridge or their healthy value. I could have ignored the fallen blueberries and nothing would have changed for our family. Yet, the fact that I would know they were wasted nagged at me. And why was I willing to entertain the idea of not saving them? convenience, ease, time, disgust, apathy, embarrassment?
So there I knelt...hastily recovering fallen blueberries and wondering what the couple that sat in the car in front of me was thinking: "Ew, who would eat those? Look at her, crazy lady, on her hands and knees for a few blueberries." Yet, it still felt right to recover them in the container and take them home.
After plenty of washing and hope for these blueberries, they were added as originally intended, along with walnuts, to my yogurt. None were the wiser that they spent time on a previous path except me--one of sure loss.
I enjoyed every moment of my rescued berries!
--Groceries aside---
The wind moves through our hearts in everyday moments to feel God's presence and see the picture He paints of the seemingly insignificant to remind us of His love. We are His rescued berries!
After all, it was to save two pounds of blueberries--TWO POUNDS! The cost alone of those berries impelled me to save them --over $6. I realized the loss of 1/3 of them seemed minimal compared to the value of the many other grocery items I had purchased. Yet, there they lay contaminated by all that had touched that same rainy pavement. So much for organic!
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| (withasoutherntwist.com) |
I contemplated just leaving them to the torture of the tires. But to me, they appeared still usable. They weren't totally ruined or smashed--a mere tumble. Couldn't they just be washed off? After all, that's what I would need to do anyway before eating them: a good washing.
Honestly, some of the compulsion to save them was because they were my grocery extravagance. No one else used or wanted them or even recognized their presence in the fridge or their healthy value. I could have ignored the fallen blueberries and nothing would have changed for our family. Yet, the fact that I would know they were wasted nagged at me. And why was I willing to entertain the idea of not saving them? convenience, ease, time, disgust, apathy, embarrassment?
So there I knelt...hastily recovering fallen blueberries and wondering what the couple that sat in the car in front of me was thinking: "Ew, who would eat those? Look at her, crazy lady, on her hands and knees for a few blueberries." Yet, it still felt right to recover them in the container and take them home.
After plenty of washing and hope for these blueberries, they were added as originally intended, along with walnuts, to my yogurt. None were the wiser that they spent time on a previous path except me--one of sure loss.
--Groceries aside---
The wind moves through our hearts in everyday moments to feel God's presence and see the picture He paints of the seemingly insignificant to remind us of His love. We are His rescued berries!
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