What Do You See?

Sometime back, there was a picture of a dress circulating on social media. All the hoop-la was about what color you saw when you looked at it. I thought about that as I found this Meyer lemon on Gautreau Acres this morning. At first, I saw low hanging fruit. My first inclination was to pick it, cut it open and see how it taste … even though I knew it was still early. And then as I put my hand around it, a little whisper spoke to my spirit. To pick it now would be short sighted.

As a people leader, part of my responsibility is to grow and develop people. That was my second thought. When you see potential and great desire in people you want to elevate them quickly.  But, if you do that too early, or leave them without coaching and leadership too soon it could work against them. That could place a heavy burden on them. You want them to use their energy to grow, not to carry too heavy of a load from the beginning of the journey. We are conditioned to move quickly in this world. Everything Now is Good.

And then as I sat on the backyard swing and thought some more … I thought about how low hanging fruit sets us up for a false sense of pace, determination, and grit. We stop climbing. We settle and we wonder why we are not living in abundance. What about the fruit higher in the tree? The fruit that in order to collect, requires more planning, a few more minutes or even hours. It might require that you not do the job alone. You may need someone to spot you, hold the ladder, be a second set of eyes. We often think today if we bring someone along it will slow us down. This world doesn’t like slow. But, what if it meant that in the end you would be more fruitful, a bigger reward for you and others. Others. That’s abundance. 

I didn’t plan to take Fruit Picking 101 this morning, but I always learn something when I take time to go deeper. I learned that “low hanging fruit” isn’t in the bible. “Be fruitful” is. And I learned from a few citrus farming articles that it makes more sense to pick from the top of the tree first. The goal is to be productive … or fruitful. If you start from the bottom where the fruit is less ripe, because it gets less sun, your bag may fill up with the unripe fruit. Unripe fruit is less delectable. You may grow tired before reaching the fruit ready for picking. The fruit at the top of the tree is more mature, ripe … it can fill you up. The more ripe fruit we cultivate and share the more we live in abundance. 

I left that little lemon hanging this morning and chose to read deeper and reflect more. If I want to grow, if I want to live in abundance, I have to keep putting in the work. I can’t keep grasping for a bible verse here and there. I have to read longer in the morning and get back to writing, sharing, and teaching. That’s where my abundance is. What do you see at first? And just because you see that first, doesn’t mean there’s not room to see more. Give yourself time to look longer, think deeper, read more.

There is Room.