One of the best things ever is coming home to something left for you on your porch. Not like a consumer package, something capitalism-related that you purchased and was shipped to you, but something that someone you personally know delivered and left as a gift for you on your porch.
Today, it was a box of sunchokes from our lovely friend Stacey. Sunchokes for some reason are also called Jerusalem artichokes, though they are not artichokes nor do they come from Jerusalem (although Wikipedia has a few theories about why they’re called that) — in fact, they’re actually closely related to common sunflowers. Whatever the reason for their name, Stacey has them in her yard and shared the bounty with us. When I got home from a wander, there they were in a box on the porch.
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(so many sunchokes! Thanks, Stacey!:)
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I think this happens more in my life than one might expect. The other day, one of the farm hands from Full Plate Farm, the amazing farm that grows our winter CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) veggies, dropped by to deliver many chicories and some extra collard greens. Sometimes, our neighbor leaves bouquets of weedy flowers and maybe a chocolate bar. Once upon a time, someone left us a whole bowl of cherries, though I never did figure out who was behind that particular act of kindness.
It’s something we reciprocate with many, many figs from the tree we planted a few years ago, or the raspberries and blueberries we planted along the sidewalk that all our neighbors help themselves to as they walk past, or whatever bounty we also happen to have. Baby houseplants, propagated from my many momma houseplants, to a friend. Letters just to say hi.
And it makes me so happy, this free exchange of unexpected gifts. If I could live my whole life just giving and receiving wholesome bounty like this, gifts from the earth and from the labor of people’s hands in the earth and from people’s freely-given goodwill, I would be a happy Honnold. (Okay, I am a happy Honnold;) But this is one of the things that makes me happy, having this in my life:)
So no, this has basically nothing to do with biking, but it’s something filling my soul these days, so there you go.