The Biggest Berries Sometimes Fail Me

This is an excerpt from the weekly News-Loveletter. If you would like it sent to your inbox directly (with all the other juicy bits, including a mini joy practice), you can add yourself to my mailing list here.

Sometimes, it's easy picking. All the fruit is low-hanging, and it's BIG. Pictured above is the biggest of Oregon blueberries bragging alongside what I imagine would be the biggest of Maine blueberries (am I wrong?). The size blows my mind. It's a pitless plum.

Harvest can leave us agog. It can be fast and sweet and effortless.

But not always. Sometimes, we work and work and work for the smallest blueberry payoff. You know what I mean.

It's the day you get that dentist bill and your paycheck barely covers it. Or you go all out and get your grandchild something that they already have. Or you bake a cake, then drop it face down on its way out of the oven.

Where's the sweetness there?

I'll tell you. The sweetness is in remembering that we can be here for all of it. We can appreciate the opportunity to learn and grow. The running chance at patience. This is the long game.

In my classes, we talk about the quiet benefits of the small harvest, those times when things don't go our way. Instead of relying on outside forces for our joy, we must look inward if we're committed to finding it.

And committed I am! In the little harvest, you'll find me Priming, feeling into needs met in my imagination alone. More on how to do that here.

You'll find me Upframing so that my thoughts and words don't leave me more dismal and disempowered. This practice offers me a chance to view the situation—and especially my discontent—from a different angle.

This essay is an Upframe of sorts to help me (and you!) find value in the small harvest.

Another Upframe that comes to mind is my friend Julie telling me to watch out for the birdbaths in the gravel road. They could otherwise be called potholes, but filled with water in an Oregon winter, she's right—the birds are loving it! A video on how to Upframe is here.

How do you Prime, Upframe or in some other way turn your day around when times get tough?