Outdoor Wednesday: The Zen of Berry Picking

It was a beautiful afternoon . I could hear the berries calling to me: come get us, we're ripe and ready!! So I got out my berry bucket and headed to the side yard to do some picking. I'm always a little apprehensive when I start, because I know I will come away stained, scratched and fingers full of berry thorns, but there is no way to pick these babies with gardening gloves on!

I notice when I'm picking that I fall into a sort of relaxed, zen-like state of mind. Unlike other activities where I'm mostly operating on cruise control with my mind a million miles away on hyper drive, when I'm out in the berry garden, I find myself really focusing on what I'm doing, really being in the moment. Whether I'm focusing in order to prevent deep bleeding gashes on my arms from the thorns, or just to avoid falling down the hill during a moment of attention deficit, I know that I'm keenly aware of what I'm doing for the duration of my time out there with my bucket and my berry picking stick! And do you know what? I'm so grateful for that time. It feels really good to have a few moments during the day where I'm able to concentrate on one thing, instead of the usual multi-tasking and incessant brain noise that I am so accustomed to the rest of the day.

It is so totally worth the risk of a scratches and deeply embedded thorns in my finger tips, for the relaxation, and the silencing of my noisy mind, if only for a few minutes! And I get to eat those fat, juicy berries!! That's something else to be grateful for, too!!

I'm participating in Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer. Thank you Susan!