For many years it has been a family tradition for us to go to a pick-your-own farm In June to pick blueberries. Our absolute favorite place to pick has been Laura’s Blueberry Farm near Lake Sam Rayburn in East TX. My dear friend Kelly Ward brought us there each year and shared this ideal photograph. The blueberry bushes are nestled in the cool shade of these tall pine trees. A few years ago I wrote a poem called “Blueberry Worship” to offer a glimpse of the sacredness found here in an ordinary task such as picking blueberries.
early summer ritual
picking blueberries
with my little bear
in hushed reverence
the forest
sunlight and shadows
dapple dance
rambling along
lavish needle carpets
we walk down aisles of
blueberry bushes
limbs arched downward, heavy
with clusters of tart-sweet offerings
pine trees steeple above
the stillness rippled
by berries dropped
plunk
plunk
plunk
into buckets