Pickled!

Youngest Daughter loves pickles!

Thus, we spent our afternoon at our local farmer's market shopping for the perfect pickling cucumbers. Each and every cucumber we purchased was hand selected by the sweet fingers of my youngest child.

The vendors at our favorite organic produce stand smiled happily as we oohed and aahed over their gorgeous stalks of dill weed. They patiently helped us pick out the most tantalizing cucumbers and then cheerfully explained the differences between the four varieties of garlic they had nested in overflowing baskets next to the cioppino onions and shallots.

We came home inspired by all that we had learned. Inspired to pickle!

At this very moment, four quarts of the most amazing, most blazingly beautiful refrigerator pickles sit cooling on our kitchen counter.

Anne Morrow Lindberg once wrote, "When I cannot write a poem, I bake biscuits and feel just as pleased."

Me?

I cannot solve all of the complex issues of poverty and loneliness that afflict so many of my neighbors, but you know what? When I visit the farmer's market and listen to the wisdom of the men and women who grow my food, when Youngest Daughter and I lovingly hand select cucumbers and make refrigerator pickles to share with our neighbors.....well I'm just as pleased.

And my neighbors?

Well, their problems don't magically evaporate, but when we share our jars of briny goodness with our neighbors, we become connected to one another, connected to the farmers who grow our food, and connected to the God who loves us all....connected by a simple jar of pickles.

I happen to think that's something worth celebrating!