The time for this post should have been in the past, or maybe this autumn but regardless here it is today. Opportunities are ahead if stalled temporarily now.
It includes some of my thoughts from a speech I shared. I hope you like it. – David
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Life is a Big Gunny Sack of Apples
My Dad, Gerald, was born in 1938 and grew up in the Village of Weldon, Saskatchewan.
Back in the 1940s and early 1950s, there was only one grocery type store in town that sold fruit, But mostly Dad said they didn’t buy fruit, In the summer the family picked wild berries, such as Saskatoon’s, choke-cherries, wild blueberries, and wild strawberries.
When it came to fruit
Dad especially looked forward to the fall because the local Farmer Co-op each fall brought in a Railway boxcar filled with apples from British Columbia’s Okanagan valley.
Mostly McIntosh apples Dad remembers although at the time he didn’t much care as long as they were sweet and crisp. The store sold them right at the boxcar for $1.00 per gunny sack full which is a big big bag holding 80 pounds or more.
My Dad’s parents, my grandparents, always bought at least two gunny sacks as my grandma also canned apple sauce for later eating.
Nothing goes to waste when you have a big family and mouths to feed.
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What I unpacked from this sack of apples story, is that apples were a big treat, apples were something that my Dad looked forward to when he was growing up.
You don’t waste Apples
Apples weren’t wasted then, what apples weren’t eaten were made into sauce and put in jars to enjoyed later. Apples never were left to rot.
(This is when during my speech I pulled out of a bag and held them up, displayed for the audience
- a fresh apple and
- a rotten apple. )
The fresh delicious apple represents opportunities, chances given to enjoy, taste, and experience what life offers.
The brown, soft, rotten apple represents opportunities given, but lost, for some reason allowed to waste.
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I am excited to share about one fresh delicious apple
I am enjoying every day is the new life I was given when I received a new kidney April 24, 2019.
Exactly like the fresh apple arriving by boxcar in the 1950’s, this was an event I looked forward to, and yes, even prayed about.
I am going to cherish it, enjoy it, and protect it.
If I wasted it, like a rotten apple, I will have wasted my life saving opportunity.
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Photo by Brett Sayles on Pexels.com
What about apples in your life?
If you wrote your obituary today…………… what would it say?
Will your story be one of apples enjoyed, and happy memories or will it be of regret for apples wasted?
This is the question I sometimes ask myself.
Will I wait for life? Or will I live my life without waiting? Because you know the perfect time will never come. At some point you bite into the apple, or it will be too late.
Take YOUR big bag of delicious apples home and enjoy biting into them, juicy crisp apples and protect what you can’t eat right away.
But what I don’t want to do, and what I don’t want you to do, is to let that big bag of apples go to waste, only enjoying a few but letting the majority rot.
The buds are starting to show, soon the tree will be covered.
A Gunnysack of Apples –
How many apples will I experience and enjoy, perhaps even share.
How many apples will I waste?
How many apples will you enjoy and how many will you waste?
Life and Random Thinking 
I couldn’t even think about to waste a piece of apple💖🍏🍎💖
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We all try not to waste opportunities (apples)
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Opportunities come in slices. (I believe 🙂)
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Lovely story and advice, David. Well done. We should savour our apples!
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Thank you Jane. I appreciate that you read it and understand my message.
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Great post. How about make a bunch of apple pies and share them? Share the bounty.
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That was super inspiring. I can trade the word apples for Gods Word for most of it. Thanks. Sweeter than honey!,
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A good photo is a good photo. You can post them in whatever order you would like. 🙂
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Wonderful, encouraging words. I love the whole story, very meaningful. We can learn so much from our ancesters. The way they lived is so different than today. Nothing was taken for granted back then. Making their own food and not wasting it. There wasn’t any fast food restaurants when I was growing up and I do not go to them to this day. There is more love in making homemade meals with your family, for me anyway. Wonderful post Dave. 🙂
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Thank you Sandra. I agree with you about learning and understanding from our parents and grandparents. The stories are important and so are the lessons.
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A great story. I think being quarantined has made me realize that wastefulness is so wasteful lol. We have been trying to use everything we have so there will not be too many trips into town. I think it is a challenge and it does make me grateful for what I have.
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I know what you mean, I haven’t seen the bottom of my freezer for a long time and there it is! I decided to use my Dad’s story as inspiration for my speech about opportunities, and avoiding regrets although I didn’t emphasize that aspect.
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Something I think about often is, ‘How do I want to be remembered?’ I think it’s so important how we live our life. You can go to someone’s funeral and see how well thought of they were. Make a difference now, to have standing room only at your funeral. 🙂
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Yes, that’s why I think that sitting down and imagining your obituary is motivating. Will it be filled with stories of adventure, how you were there for friends and family or will be sad stories of rotten apples, wasted? Imagine how eye opening it would be to be like Tom Sawyer and attend your own funeral. Hugs my friend.
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❤
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I have one more apple in my refrigerator. I think I’ll seize it and then the rest of my day. Loved your apple story, Dave!
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Crystal, enjoy your apple – your comment gave me my first smile of the day.
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