"Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him." (Psalm 34:8)
Maybe it was the undercurrent of contemplation. Maybe it was last week's practice with a spiritual focal point. Or maybe it was just the grace of the day that began with a morning of interruptions and texts, as I tried to get to my morning meditation: Someone sent a reel on Ramana Maharshi, which started a text chain discussion, then my computer became feisty as I checked the calendar, and my phone spilled out news updates not to be ignored, bringing an atmosphere of agitation. When I finally was able to get to my cereal and coffee, I grabbed a peach that had been sitting on the counter for a few days. It smelled lovely, and felt ripe, so I opened it to add to the cereal bowl. I just had to eat the first slice. The taste was summer in it's ripeness--perfection! It was, without a doubt, the best peach of my life. Exquisite. Summer in a peach. Somehow in this mess of July with all the twists, turns and tragedies, summer had never really arrived, until this moment.
The tension of the morning melted as I slowly ate the peach and simply looked out the window at green trees, white clouds, blue skies. And I considered timing. The timing of the peach awakened my senses. I considered patience. The Eaton fire 6 months ago contaminated the local plants and the county advised not eating the produce from nearby gardens for a year, except the oranges and tangerines with thick rind protection. Patience is needed, because healing and repair, take time. And ripening takes time. The bananas bought for school lunches often ripen and over ripen, too quickly. Yet, the avocado on the counter (that I had been checking daily), still won't give way to softness, while the peach was perfection. Ripening also involves variation. It struck me that deepening our understanding of timing and variation are keys to living with climate change. A line from the I Ching popped into my mind, "All that matters is that things happen at the right time."
Yes, the political drama of tariffs, and the overwhelming loss of farm workers through immigration raids continue to create chaos, ultimately affecting food supplies. These are serious challenges, but today, and into this next week of July, I encourage you to savor nature's gift of summer. Within summer fruit is an essential principle of timing, of ripening processes, of abundance through adaptation, generosity, and creativity. Don't wrestle and push understanding; just taste and see. (Susan Nettleton)
https://allpoetry.com/poem/14108093-O-Taste-and-See-by-Denise-Levertov-by-Denise-Levertov https://poets.org/poem/peaches https://yearwithrilke.blogspot.com/2011/11/god-is-ripening.html