A Year of Gratitude – July 13, 2024

My gratitude was waiting for me in the berry patch this morning. It’s raspberry season and the berries are plump, ripe, and ready to be picked.

Raspberry season is a sign that July has arrived. You can nearly mark the date by the ripening of our raspberries. It’s always just after the Fourth of July. They start to ripen and then there are so many berries that it is difficult to keep up with them.

I have grand memories from this berry patch over the years. I remember how exciting it was when we picked the first berries. We were so proud of the handful of berries we picked that first year.

From there, this patch of raspberry canes has grown to a hedge more than thirty feet long. The canes just keep improving year after year. It’s difficult to remember when there were four spindly twigs growing up from the ground in the space where the hedge now stands.

But I remember. I look at this space and see summers when my children were small and would carefully pluck ripe berries off the thorny canes. We’d stand in the garden every night before dusk picking the berries that had ripened in the day’s sunshine. By morning, there would be new berries to pick.

I’m so glad that we planted those first canes all those years ago. Like most things on this farm, they have blossomed and become something far greater than I could have imagined. I’m grateful for every delicious berry and the sweet memories we have made.

This post is part of our A Year of Gratitude Series. You can find the introduction, inspiration, and entire year’s gratitude’s posts here.