The Blessing Of Blackberry Bushes

I grew up spending the summers in rural Tennessee. My great-grandparents’ house sat across from the cotton fields and just down the road from the lake. The town they lived in was so small that it was home to just one of everything, one grocery store, one gas station and one single traffic light.

(Well, except for the churches. There are three of those on account of how it is smack in the middle of the Bible Belt.)

Those summers were spent sitting on the sun porch snapping green beans for dinner, picked fresh from the backyard garden.  It was my job as a little girl and now it is my little girl’s job. We would carry tin buckets to the patch of blackberry bushes, staining our fingers as we plucked the ripe berries for Mawmaw to make into cobbler. Whenever I reflect on my own childhood I find it is the simple moments such as those that stand out the most to me. Things like chasing down the ice cream truck with a dollar with my cousins are among my sweetest memories, literally and figuratively.

In an effort to recreate a bit of the country life I grew up with we joined a local farm co-op where we visit each week to stock up on fresh groceries. This year they opened the blackberry fields up for picking and I knew I wanted to take Scarlette with a bucket of her own. I pulled out my cell phone to snap some pictures and record some little videos of her excitement at learning which berries to choose and “doing itawl bymyselfs.”

At the end of the morning as we measured out our haul on the vintage farm scale the weight read two and a half pounds and I looked at Scarlette with her purple stained mouth and proudly holding her empty bucket and I thought “that is one pound more than she weighed when she was born.”

And in a moment drenched in sun and grace I breathed a quick prayer of thanks for blackberries, a healthy child, and the opportunity to pass down a legacy. These are the times that I revel in motherhood, because of unexpected blessings found in blackberry bushes.

And then we made jam.

There’s no better vehicle to bring the family together than the Chevy Traverse. With seating for up to 8^1., everyone in the family can join in on the fun. A 5-Star Overall Vehicle Score for safety^2. helps keep everyone safe on your journey to find new roads, no matter where, or how far, it takes you. And best-in-class maximum cargo space makes packing for family road trips, or hauling around children’s sporting equipment, a breeze. With all these great features and more, there’s no question the Chevy Traverse is the ultimate family vehicle. Learn more at http://www.chevrolet.com/traverse-mid-size-suv.html.  

1. Standard on LS and 1LT.  Available on 2LT. LTZ seats 7.

 

• Government 5-Star Safety Ratings are part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s New Car Assessment Program (www.SaferCar.gov).

____________________________________

You can see my Pinterest board full of fun, family activity ideas here! Follow Kayla Aimee’s board Brought to you by Chevrolet Traverse on Pinterest.