'The Magic Strawberry Patch'

'What goes around comes around.'

That's a saying my husband frequently employs.  Some call it Karma.  I call it the consequences and blessings of laws that I believe are eternal.  'Just deserts', you might say.

I remember reading a story about an elderly lady who cared for her farm's large strawberry patch.  Her strawberries had well-earned their reputation for being the biggest, juiciest, most luscious and delicious strawberries anywhere around.  The farm where this lady and her husband lived was not overly prosperous and the couple were not wealthy, so the money they made from the sale of the woman's strawberries was very helpful to their budget.

Except that the woman gave so many of her strawberries away!  She gave them to new mothers, grieving families, homes where there was illness, homes that needed cheering up, hungry passers-by who came looking for a handout, and to neighourhood boys who might have felt the need to sneak into the patch if they hadn't been freely invited.

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The story was written by the woman's grand-daughter - who felt enormously exasperated by her sweet grandmother's naive generosity and complete lack of business acumen.

"It's all part of the magic," her grandmother would smilingly explain.

Eventually, the farm was sold, that old couple moved away, and the farm and strawberry patch came under new management.  There were plans to finally turn the delectable rows of strawberries into a profitable concern.

When the grand-daughter's family felt a hankering for the familiar taste of those wonderful strawberries the following year, they returned to the farm to purchase some from the new owner - only to find that the strawberries were 'puny' and nothing like they had been.  "I plain don't understand it," the frustrated farmer exclaimed.  He had done everything the same, but was getting only half the yield and nothing like the quality there had previously been.  The strawberries were so disappointing that the patch was eventually plowed under the following year, and the land given over to another crop.

Do you believe in that kind of magic?  I do.  I don't know if this was true, or just a story, but I believe that the principle it highlights is true, even if we can't always see it straight away.

I gratefully acknowledge the amazing generosity of the multitudes of talent-packed Bloggers out there who have shared with me their recipes for rhubarb pie, ideas for how to design our new house, and everything in between.  It's been a great help to me on many occasions.  We're sometimes called a cold, hard and heartless world, but that is actually getting harder to believe - because the world has so many people in it who are nothing like that description!

What goes around comes around.  And thank you  :)