My friends who garden are busy harvesting their gardens, picking lush fruits and vegetables. Depending on their desires and skills, they freeze the vegetables, bottle them, or use them in salads and soups.
I have always loved the look of bottled fruits and vegetables marching across shelves. Jellies gleam like jewels when the sun gleams on the glass jars. Humble green beans and prosaic tomatoes taste special when they are home grown and canned.
Preserving food, setting it by for hard times, is a time-honored tradition. What qualities do we preserve in ourselves? What qualities do we set by for hard times?
Have I preserved honesty and compassion? Have I set by generosity and unselfishness? Have I stores of self-reliance and independence to draw upon when times are hard, when life grows unmanageable? Have I been a wise steward of my strength as my friends have been wise stewards of their gardens?
So, for today, I am grateful for wise stewards.
Have you ever noticed that those qualities have a short shelf-life? That, and one "preserved" bad habit can spoil a bunch of good ones. Like a wormy apple.
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