“When August rolls around, my neighbor Sandy down the road in an old farmhouse puts out a card table under her front maples. The canning jars with stalks of bright gladiolas caught my eye. There is also a stack of zucchini, a basket of new red potatoes, and a sign that says "free." A person can only use so many glads, and so she shares the gladness with whoever might stop. Zucchinis are another story.
Around here, when late summer heat might bring a new squash every day, finding homes for surplus zukes is no joke. They will grow from cucumber size to baseball bats in a matter of days. People have been known to put them in each other's mailboxes or surreptitiously place them on the front seat of a parked car. I'm not sure that this could be framed as a gift - more like a stealthy game of self-preservation. But not everyone has a garden and a pestilence of squash. Sandy gets the pleasure of seeing a car stop, maybe on the way home from work, to accept the gift of fresh veggies for dinner and a bouquet for the table. The currency of exchange is the secret smiles on both faces.”
The Serviceberry - Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer pgs. 41 - 42
Invitation: “The currency of exchange...”
Read more about Robin Wall Kimmerer at this (link)
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I love the story of Robin's neighbor and this statement about her table of free vegetables and flowers by the road -- "The currency of exchange is the secret smiles on both faces." I love the photos of you, Pat and Jean, underneath the reflection with friends -- and all those smiling faces.
While it seems that the radiance of smiles on faces of people being together is eclipsed by the chaos and negativity from the current White House and too many people serving in Congress, let us not forget what is possible, still. And, to recognize the secret smiles that Robin describes at her neighbors' free table by the roadside.
Friendship economy! What a bounty!