Today I bought blueberries. Not the fruit, but rather 20 bushes to plant in my back yard. We have a public path next to our home, and the city provides a wire fence. We don't need much screening as the path is rarely used,

so I decided an edible hedge would be a delicious addition to our backyard. So after seeing an add on Craigslist for $3 blueberry plants, the boys and I drove out to a blueberry farm and the kind farmer provided both young plants and many tips on starting the bushes off right.
 
These little two year old bushes are only about two feet high, yet they already have little green berries forming. They are eager to produce fruit, and I am eager to eat my first crop. But the farmer instructed me to nip off these early berries, so the plant puts its energy into roots and getting established.
 
It is hard to wait. The little girl in me cries out "But I want to eat berries THIS year!" I feel sad for the eager little bushes as I take a pair of scissors to their first berry efforts. It would be so easy to just leave the plants alone and let those berries ripen. But easy is often the enemy of great. If I want a thick strong hedge in the future, I have to take the hard path. Scissors snip and little green shoots and berries scatter my lawn.
Itsn't that how it often is in life? While it is best for my sons to wait for the healthy dinner I am cooking, it would be so easy to just give them the cookie they plead for. It would be so simple to eat another slice of the lucious chocolate cake calling out my name on the kitchen counter, but what I really want is the ease of movement and engergy levels that only come with restaint. Going to bed mad at my husband is easy, but it will not build the strong open relationship I crave.
 
We could all learn some patience from nature.