Tangerine Betsy
You can tell I’ve been well fed lately because my blogs tend to be about food. May they feed you.
So, there I was on a morning walk around my friend’s very closely populated neighborhood. As I approached one house, I was surprised at the amount of fruit trees growing in the front yard. A woman appeared from among the branches that she was pruning.
“Good morning,” I greeted with my headphones on.
“Good morning,” she returned as I continued walking. Then, “Would you like some?”
“What’s that?” I returned. I had to remove my headphones for this one. “Tangerines,” she replied, reaching for a green fruit on the tree. “I grow them here for everybody” She peeled back the green skin to reveal perfectly encased orange flesh. I took it, surprised at her generosity.
“Here, take more, take them for your children,” she pushed in an accent that I couldn’t quite place. “There’s too much.” She moved to another grove of trees on the side of her small, subdivided lot. Loaded with fruit, she reached for the top as she explained that they were good, organically grown. As she placed more in my hands, she told me that she had bought them for $750. “No, I mean $7.50,” she countered. I smiled, she had at least a dozen trees in her front yard. I offered my name and she hers; Betsy.
I left balancing 5 large tangerines in my hands where my phone and headphones had remained also. Betsy was still offering more fruit as I turned to drop off my goods at my friend’s house.
Just around the corner, I returned home, peeled two tangerines, and bit into the juicy fruit that tasted like generosity and love. All because Betsy decided to move the cultivation to her front yard to cultivate relationships. And I had ears to hear her.
