A Simple Peach

It is lovely and quiet this morning on my back porch.  It has been scorching hot the last week, but this morning it is still cool.  I can hear birds chirping, and I watch the shapes change in my trees as the sun rises, leaving little rippling pools of light in the leaves. 

I am up early, getting ready to head to church.  I am going to the early service, trying to make time for reflection before my sleepover-tired boys get going for the day.  This may be the only quiet time I get all day!

I sit on the edge of my porch, eating a simple peach.  Have you ever noticed how perfectly peaches are constructed?  The gorgeous pink that melts into orange,  the smooth fuzz, the sweet, dripping flesh, the perfect seed in the middle that holds it all together?  I notice.

In this moment, I am reminded that perhaps there is a simple and brilliant construction to all of this.  To the trees, the sun, the grass, my peach, the birds, my dogs, my wild little boys sleeping downstairs, even me.  What if everything in this moment, and each moment, is just as it should be?  What if I were to live in this moment, the moment, all of the time?  I might notice more often the luscious beauty, awesome simplicity, and deep interconnection that surrounds us and is us all of the time.

Even in times of sorrow, doubt, fear, there is beauty, simplicity, and connection.  The moment may not be what I would like it to be - I would not choose grief, or shame, or anger.  But when I let myself truly experience these feelings or un-wished-for experiences, and tend to them in the moment, I am never left without connecting to the deep beauty of living.  Life, in full spectrum. 

I am thankful for the simple peach that reminded me that I am connected, and beautiful, and loved.  In the quiet moments, and in the not-so-quiet moments.  And so are you.