Day 243 Reading the Fruit

August 9, 2015

(If we live with an open and grateful attitude, every day will bring a gift. This is one of 365 gifts during the year I turned 70.)

I am lucky being married to a man who likes to shop and to cook. And, since he doesn’t like the way I load the dishwasher, he also cleans up the kitchen. When he goes to the grocery store, he takes his time and his coupons. We always have fresh fruit in our kitchen, fruit that has been thoughfully examined—first with the eye, then with the hands and the nose. Once it passes these sensory tests—and if the price is not too high—then it comes home. 

My mother, also, used to closely examine fruit that came down our back alley with the calls of the Baltimore A-rabbers. She insisted on the best or she would send the A-rabber on his way. In those days when peaches were my favorite fruit, we could get them only when they were in season in our area. Today, however, peaches are picked way too soon and shipped way too far. It is sometimes difficult to find a peach that doesn’t taste like cardboard—I’d rather eat no peaches than to eat peach-flavored cardboard. 

Sitting on our kitchen counter right now are nine peaches, hand-selected by David who has instructed me how to eat them. I must start with the peaches on the left and then move on to the right. If I read the peaches that way, then each one should be perfect.  

My gift today is husband-picked peaches .

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> Day 244: Touched

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 234 Secret Lives of Food

July 31, 2015

(If we live with an open and grateful attitude, every day will bring a gift. This is one of 365 gifts during the year I turned 70.)

My mother always told me to eat my veggies—that they would help me grow— but she did not tell me about their other lives. I would learn this later from a man who showed me the intimate essence of vegetables (and fruit). He presented a green pepper, naked, light entwining the curves of its body. My eyes savored a journey over a smooth green landscape and discovered subtle nuances beyond the surface. Sensuous rhythms pulsed in me as I imagined a tactile gliding, encircling the rise and fall of the skin. I discovered how light licked undulating curves and how shadows slid silently into folds. 

With his black and white photograph of a green pepper, photographer Edward Weston awakened my senses and led me to feast on possibilities of experience. If an ordinary green pepper can offer itself as sumptuous, both as food and sensory experience, what can other ordinary things offer? I began to go beyond looking and to relish seeing as a sensual experience. Ever since I saw Weston’s erotic green pepper photograph, I have never taken any vegetable (or fruit) for granted and I have never looked at a green pepper in the same way. This union of vision and desire gave birth to a new way of seeing and experiencing life in multiple layers. Veggies and fruit are delicious love affairs. 

Today I understood when David came home from the grocery store with a very special peach.  

My gift today is a horny peach.

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> Day 235: Illumination

Edward Weston’s Pepper No. 30, 1927: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/edward-weston-pepper-no-30

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 180 Beginning the Day

June 7, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70^th years where I write and illustrate a blog on each day’s gift.)

“Just tell me what you’d like for breakfast.”

I hear this every morning. David’s biggest meal is breakfast, which is my least important meal. He’s ready to spend an hour in the kitchen whipping up a big meal to start the day while my system tries to get in step with a new day—ever so slowly. 

“Poached eggs, pancakes, French toast? Just tell me what you want,” he offers.

“Fruit,” I say most mornings. He doesn’t just hand me a banana or peach. He spends time cutting up strawberries, melon, avocado, peaches, kiwi, raspberries, blue berries and bananas. Sometimes he adds grapes and mandarin oranges. Fruit is a good way to start the day with fiber. 

While I try to brush the cobwebs from my brain, a beautiful bowl of cut up fruit is being created. Do I know how lucky I am? Of course! And I appreciate it, even though it might take me a few hours before I express my appreciation. 

 Indeed, I am lucky to be married to a caregiver, a husband who cares about my health. It’s good to begin each day with this kind of love.

Love is often the fruit of marriage.” ~ Moliere

May I should mention that the fruit is always arranged aesthetically on a plate or in a bowl. Preparation with an extra special touch.

Maybe fruit is the love of marriage.

My gift today (and every day) is a bowl of fresh fruit.

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> Day 181: Questions

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html