Down the Spectrum

We seem to be moving down the spectrum this week: the color spectrum, that is. In reverse. Moving on from our violet and indigo, we're steadily into the blues today. Blueberries, to be exact.



Blueberries were not on the agenda this morning. Then I walked out our door into a perfectly breezy, seventy-degree morning. Next thing I knew, I was making some sandwiches, packing a bag, and buckling a couple of kids into their car seats. Perhaps, I should have warned them about the lengthy car ride, which, apparently, wasn't on either one of their agendas. Luckily, my college psych teachers weren't kidding when they said the color blue creates feelings of calm. Subjects A and N calmed down instantly the moment we arrived at the blueberry patch and opened the car doors.

Perhaps, it's yards of tidy rows through which to run. Perhaps, it's the endless supply of snacks growing right at your fingertips or the companionship of other pickers (once strangers, but now called Emma, Mimi, and Randy) who seem happy to accept the berry offerings a little blond tosses into their buckets. It might ride in on the fingertips of a babe, brushing the leaves of a blueberry bush for the first time, or on the aging memory of a mama daydreaming of berry recipes tried and true. It could be in the lessons (as Randy answers your little one with a detailed description of how one could make a scarecrow), or the proclamations ("Mom, I want to live here forever!). Or the sweet sensation that leaves a mark on your tongue. Whatever the reason, sometimes the blues are oh so good.