It All Started With a Dropped Raspberry

 Do you see those volunteer raspberry starts in the pictures above?  Well they all started with 1, count em, 1 raspberry from our other patch that a bird dropped about 5 years ago.  This is not where my husband wants a raspberry patch and has been fighting with them ever since.  I dug some starts out and sold them on a local facebook sales page but I still have more coming up.  Have you ever tried to eradicate an entire raspberry bed?  Those roots go deep and they spread like crazy!  We are forever trying to keep the other patch contained and out of the lawn and blueberry bed area of the garden.


 I got to thinking about how that dropped raspberry that started this whole patch can be an allegory for other areas in our life.  One accidentally misspoken word can start an avalanche.  Words are powerful and can either uplift or harm someone.  I see so many people in my daily life who are hurting due to a comment that was made to them that hurt them deeply.  Sometimes those comments were made in jest but they still cut the hurting person to the core.  I see kids who think they can't do something in school because someone made a comment to them telling them they are dumb.  I work with teens who have a poor body image because someone told them that those jeans made their butt look big or said "are you sure you want a second helping...it's fattening".  I see adults hurting because someone once told them, in a fit of anger, that they wish they had never been born.  Those misspoken words words caused so much harm to the recipient and the roots of self doubt started to go deep and spread out to many areas of the person's life.  My whole point here is to say...BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU SAY.  Make sure that your words are helpful and not harmful.  If you have hurt someone with your words, please apologize and ask for forgiveness.  Words are powerful....use them for good.