Strawberry Moon – Fruition

The humble strawberry can be a revelation. Sweet, juicy, mouthwatering. The sugary fruit tantalizes our tastebuds, and fills our senses with its delicious scent of summer.

Have you ever been berry-picking? I usually go every year with my grandparents, but year upon year upon year, it’s getting harder for them to pick the strawberries. They usually head for the rows and rows of raspberries that grow on bushes 6ft tall. The effort of bending over to pluck the ripe strawberries from the low-growing plants is just a little too much for them now they’re in their late 70s and early 80s.

So, I’m assigned strawberry duty. Evenly spaced rows of broad-leafed strawberry plants lie before me, with only the occasional, tantalizing glimmer of red peeking out behind the leaves here and there. Because, as you’ve probably noticed, strawberry plants don’t display their fruit; they hide it. If you didn’t know that the delicious fruit was there, then you might just walk straight passed these rows – probably heading for some more obvious fruit to pick – like raspberries.

Crouching down low, I blindly feel beneath the leaves, my fingers searching out the fruit that I know is there, but that my eyes can’t see. But it is oh so worth the effort – luscious, delicious red berries. My mouth is watering just thinking about them…

However, I can’t help wondering just how often I behave like the strawberry plant. I start off with a seed of an idea – perhaps just a wisp of a thought that I snatch from the air and capture in a note-to-self on a fluorescent post-it. And then I allow that idea to grow. I feed it, I nourish it, I encourage it to set down roots, I help it strive towards the light.

The leaves grow bigger.
The roots travel deeper.
The stems get stronger.

And then, almost before I’m even really prepared for it, the idea begins to bear fruit. Red, ripe, juicy fruit. Desirable fruit. Fruit to be proud of.

And I am proud of the fruit, and of myself for managing to produce it. And yet, I hold that fruit close to the ground. And then I cover it with one of those broad green leaves for good measure.

How different it would feel to display the fruition of our hopes and dreams, our projects and ideas, in a way that clearly showed how pleased we were with ourselves for producing such bounty!

We often say that “pride comes before a fall” and then we use that as an excuse for not celebrating our achievements, our fruition. However, this lunar cycle I’d like to dispel this myth. It is a good thing to take pride in your creations, your achievements, and what’s more, it’s good to tell people about it. We want to hear how fabulously well you are doing, how pleased you are that all your hard work is paying off!

This cycle is a time to stop and celebrate the fruits of your labour. Go on – they taste delicious!

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