I'm a local girl. Born and raised in Cherry Valley, although I've had some brief stints in places like Seattle and San Francisco. Traveled a fair bit, but always found my way back home to Cherry Valley. And I realized this last weekend, in the simple act of eating vegetables, that what draws me back, what draws all of us back is the way we live here.
Allow me to explain. When I say live, I mean, doing and experiencing things that remind us that we are alive. Simple things like having uncomplicated friendships, appreciating others efforts and eating good food. So many of us are dealing with hardship and difficulty that it can be easy to focus on that rather than the things that really make us feel alive. The things that bring a simple happiness to our complicated state of being.
So.....Back to the vegetables. I bought my vegetables from a friend that grows them on her property. She tends to them with love and care, weeding, picking and nursing them with her own two hands. Her kids and husband tend to them too, because she wants her family to know the importance of food that is good for their bodies and minds.
When she hands my vegetables over to me, she does so with hands covered in the earth's dirt that she has grown them in, telling me all about the variety of vegetable and how it tastes soooooo good. As I listen to her tell me how to make a delicious dish with butter peas or how she cooks okra, I am looking at her hands, weathered and earthen, stacking tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and peppers in my bag for later.
When I get home, I remember her hands, and I look at my hands as I dice up these homegrown goods from my friend and neighbor. I begin to feel proud of this vegetable. Of it's being from my birthplace of Cherry Valley, of it's delivery of nutrients to my family's body and mind and of the happiness it brings me to serve it to those I love. In that simple moment, I know it has passed from her hands to mine, with love and care, and that I am passing it on with love and care. And THAT makes me happy.
Simply, beautifully happy. And that's what brings me back to Beaumont and Cherry Valley after the allure of other places has worn off. The fact that we can buy vegetables and fruits from our friends and neighbors, grown on the same land that we grew up on. The land may be changed, and have different neighbors and friends on it, but that land allows us to meet and know each other, to contribute to each others lives, to give us gifts to give others. And those gifts can bring happiness......Even if they are vegetables!
So this weekend, go out and talk to your friends and neighbors, pick up locally grown vegetables and fruit (avoiding lima beans if you must). Prepare them with love and care. Let them make you feel happy, healthy and well, and thankful to be a part of each others lives and the community that we call home.
