Your morning mantra

Start your day inspired: June 29, 2024

Our four children never cease to amaze me with what they get excited about.

Yesterday, we went blackberry picking.

There’s a beautiful U-Pick blackberry farm about 40 minutes north of us.

We’ve been to it a few times now, and we have so much fun every time we go.

As we pulled into the long gravel driveway, two horses and several tiny goats with big curly horns greeted us at the fence line.

All four kids squealed with excitement over the farm animals.

We promised them we’d get to pet the horses and goats after we finished picking the blackberries.

Rows and rows of blackberries were ready for our kids to eat, er, pick.

Usually about half of the fruit our kids pick go right into their mouths.

The other half of the fruit they pick actually goes into the buckets to take home.

They surprised us this time.

After receiving the helpful “only pick the darkest blackberries, not anything with red on it” instructions, we took off with our white buckets in tow.

Our youngest son, who is 2.5 years old, actually did a good job picking the darkest blackberries.

“It’s a juicy one!” he would exclaim as he proudly picked the biggest blackberries he could fit into his tiny little fingers.

There’s something so peaceful about picking fruit straight off the farm.

You can lose yourself in the rhythm of birds chirping as you scan each blackberry bush looking for just the right ripeness.

Our older two kids would squeal, “I hit the jackpot!” each time they found a section that had the sweetest, darkest blackberries.

There’s something so satisfying about filling up a bucket one piece of tiny fruit at a time.

When you first receive the big white bucket, you can have one of two thoughts.

This is going to take forever to fill this thing.

Or

This is going to be a fun way to spend an hour outside.

It’s a lot like the two different perspectives we can have as we work towards our own goals in life.