I was out early picking blueberries just as the sun came up. I was in a true battle with the red birds who had claimed this patch as their own.

As the early morning sun beamed on my face through the tangle of tiny switch-like branches, it occurred to me sharing the fruit with the birds was what I was supposed to do. I wasn’t to keep them all for myself when the red birds had been waiting for the hard green pellets to gradually soften to claret red and then finally to the cobalt blue we were all searching for.

This was the early summer morning they were finally ripe, finally in season. It seems we were all waiting for the perennial return of beauty and joy.

As I search the branches for sweet blue treasures, I begin to think about family and friendships, of how some are in our lives only for a season. During that time, they flourish, grow and bloom with complete abandon in their own place in the garden.

I am forced to think of the blooms in my garden that are now just a memory.

My garden, albeit beautiful and joyful, will always long for and have a place for the ones that are no longer there; a missing part that cannot be replaced by an annual.

I fully understand the call of a grander garden can be compelling to a plant that has long lacked enough sunshine.

As I make my way through the branches, I become even more aware of the lesson of these blueberry bushes.

Each vine aids and supports the other in bearing up the fruit that would weigh it down alone. A complicated web of thin branches becomes strong and viable when combined with others like it.

I hope you will find some time this summer to listen to the lessons of nature.

I spend as many hours outdoors as I can before the summer heat makes it impossible. Nature has a way of soothing our ragged edges, causing us to slow down, think deeper and be more honest about what our friends and family mean to us.

Redbirds all over the bushes now, their fear of me ignored in their desire for what they have been waiting for an entire season.

Go and find what you are looking for.