Picking raspberries and learning

Welcome to summer!!  I have been doing a lot of berry picking and gardening lately.  In one of those moments, I was picking raspberries, and an idea struck me in a new way.  Have you ever noticed that when you're picking berries, you can stand in one spot, think you got all the berries, but then move over a little or crouch down, and see a whole bunch of berries you never saw before?

I have discovered that I am a watcher, a learner, I love to see and learn from life situations and from other people.  I had the fortunate (and also at times unfortunate) experience of growing up with a parent in the military, so I moved around a lot.  It was really hard, and I often spent a few months at each new place with a chip on my shoulder, and a bad attitude about my situation.  But once I finally opened up to the new place, the new opportunities, I learned and grew.  I made friends in every place I lived.  I learned to love unique things about each place.

Especially since losing a child, I feel that I am more open to people's differing points of view, because time is so valuable, and people are precious, and one never knows about how their interactions may help shape another's life.  We're all doing our best to muck through life (which truly is mucky at times) and kindness, respect, and an open heart and mind can go such a long way.

 I was picking raspberries up high, at my eye level, while my nearly 2 year old daughter was happily content picking raspberries at her own height.  From what I could see, she had gotten everything, and I was sure she'd be bored soon, but she kept picking and eating for as long as I kept picking, which was quite a while.

I picked until I couldn't see any more berries, and I was ready to go in and be done, but she was still going strong.  When I got down on her level, I could see many raspberries that I couldn't see before.  I'd missed them because I hadn't shifted my perspective enough.

BOOM!  Life is like that.  Life presents us with people, with opportunities to shift our perspective.  We can listen to people who have different points of view, we can accept changes in our lives, and all of a sudden there are good things, fruits if you will, that were simply waiting to be discovered.   But if we're sure we got them all, that we know everything, that we can't be willing to open up to new ideas, people, and places, then WE miss out.  The berries don't really mind not being picked.

So, I'm trying to open up, to not judge, to listen, to try harder to see things from another's point of view, because I just don't know what hidden raspberries await.