upright

Thirty yards from the terrace, a row of highbush blueberries grows beneath the northeast tree line.

There are nearly twenty of them, some seven feet tall.

This year’s fruit has been generous.

Too generous, perhaps.

The upper canes are already bending beneath the weight. Another few weeks and some will bow to the ground. A few may split before the berries are ready.

There is an odd thing about abundance.

Enough of it can become heavy.

✧

I had business in town Tuesday and stopped first at the tailor.

He is Italian by birth and has been working from the same shop for decades. His standards are exact enough that people make the drive from neighboring states to have him cut their clothes.

While he wrapped something for me, I asked how he had managed to keep the quality of his work so high for so long.

He looked at me for a moment.

Then, in the broken English he has never bothered to lose, he said:

“There’s more than just bones that keep me upright.”

He turned his head.

His son was stacking boxes of dress shirts against the far wall.

His wife sat at a sewing machine, guiding a zipper down the length of a jacket.

At the desk, his assistant worked through purchase orders. An envelope for the afternoon bank deposit was tucked into the side pocket of her purse.

He turned back to me.

That was his answer.

I gathered my package and headed for the truck.

✧

I thought about his words on the drive home.

There have been times when I tried to carry more weight than I was built to carry alone.

Sometimes because I had no choice.

Sometimes because I thought needing support meant I had misjudged my own strength.

There are tools that have kept me standing.

Knowledge someone took the time to give me.

Hands that appeared at exactly the right place.

People who believed in something I was building enough to put some of its weight on their own shoulders.

None made the load disappear.

They simply kept it from breaking what carried it.

✧

I was nearly beyond town when I turned the truck around.

The hardware store keeps its garden supplies along the side lot this time of year.

I bought several trellises.

They are stacked beside the greenhouse tonight.

Tomorrow morning, before the day warms, I will carry them to the northeast tree line and give those heavy canes somewhere to rest.

There should be plenty of blueberries this summer.

The birds, deer, and whatever else reaches them first are welcome to most.

I don’t intend to take many.

✧

This letter is now part of the Conservatory — those who find one often need another.