A Peach of a Family

The older we get the more our family spreads out…that’s the way it’s supposed to be for that is the nature of family…its fate…its destiny. Time and space make it more difficult to get together…now get togethers are planned… which is why we learn to cherish moments…and grab them when we can. So when our daughter called and asked if we wanted to pick peaches… We did not hesitate…. “Tell us where to meet!” we said. “Give us the time and date.” And so there we were with part of our family…the part that could make it any way out in an orchard picking peaches…on a beautiful warm Spring day. I hadn’t thought much about it, but there in the orchard it occurred to me just how much our family, any family, is like peaches on a tree… Peaches grow in little clusters…kind of like little families hanging on the tree. each peach is an individual with its own fate…its own destiny. We start out in little clusters…close together on one tree and we each pick different paths leading to different destinies… But unlike peaches families are blessed…this much I have learned for once we leave the family tree…we have the ability to return. For that is also a family’s destiny…perhaps its greatest…grandest design to keep returning, creating moments, for our lives to intertwine… And a question popped into my head…floating in up on the breeze as we met up to say goodbye after picking peaches off the trees… Does a family thrive in times like these coming together to share a moment…or two? The answer came to me as quickly… You bet your peach pickin’ heart they do!