This is the gift giving season. Well-wrapped gifts are being exchanged everywhere as I write this. Children and adults alike are full of excitement as they open their presents. I wonder if the anticipation is the best part of the whole deal since there is an added element of surprise if you don't know what you are getting.
We recently purchased a farm box from a local farm. The farm curates the box with whatever is growing in the farm as of the moment. The contents of the box are not predetermined though they provide a list what may end up in the box. In this way, it is like a surprise gift though one we give ourselves (and what's wrong with that?).
So it was with some excitement that we opened the box when it arrived. As we pulled out the various items, we were quite impressed by the harvest. There were more than two dozen different vegetables and fruits in that box to our amazement - apples, grapes, carrots, lettuce, asparagus, potatoes, and so on. They included many we regularly buy and some we rarely do or things we don't particularly like. This challenges us to try something new or give something a second chance.
'Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get' as Forrest Gump famously said. As long as it is chocolates, I guess you can't complain but if you don't like chocolates that may present a problem. More to the point, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans (from Harry Potter in case you have forgotten) which included some truly disgusting flavours along with delectable ones, may be more representative of life than a box of chocolates. You truly do not know what you are going to get next - it could be 'Alas! Earwax!' as Professor Dumbledore found out.
I retired three months ago and have been adjusting to having time on my hands. The continuing pandemic certainly puts a damper on life in general but I am hoping that the new year will turn out to be like the farm box full of good stuff from the earth and that we will discover new ways to do the usual things and new things to enjoy doing.
Let us welcome 2022 in this spirit.
