Here's to the Tiny Ways Small Deeds Bloom Humongously One Blueberry at a Time. A Photo I Will Cherish

My next door neighbor is in her 90s, used to make me pirogies, and in the last couple of years she's lost her husband, broke her hip, and helped a son fight cancer. She's frail, so on her birthday I bought her two blueberry bushes so they could sit on the other side of the fence (better for cross-pollinating). My blueberries bloomed in June and I told her she'd have to wait until next year most likely for her own.

Nope. As Karal and I came home from our walk yesterday she greeted us with a smile and her palms opened. She speaks Polish and knows only a few phrases in English. It's wild that they are blooming this late, but I'm excited she got some fruit.

Seriously, I'd own a blueberry farm if I could. 

Deb, who lived on the other side of me, also planted blueberry bushes. It be nice to have multiple bushes in the neighborhood (oh, wait. I also bought a colleague two blueberry bushes when she married her partner earlier this year and they are live a few streets over). I can't believe the birds didn't get to Krystyina's plant!

So, I'm proud to think I gifted these bushes to her, as she gifted me today with fruits of the labor. If we're not nurturing the planet, gardening, and being stewards, we're not raising a generation who may one day check on me, too - where I can also smile with a palm full of berries. 

Get your hands in soil.