As I walked down the road towards home, I stopped in front of an old house. There on the street someone had placed a box of grapefruit fresh from the tree – free for the taking. I took one and put it in my pocket, feeling I was carrying the sun.
What a bright winter gift! When I returned to take a photo, an old man was kneeling in front of a bucket of mandarins, writing another sign. He’s been living in the neighbourhood for 45 years, and apologised that this year the mandarins are a little small.
Sharing our bounty: it’s a co-operative impulse that warms the bonds between neighbours and citizens. As the Japanese proverb says, ‘One kind word can warm three winter months.’
I like the idea of grapefruit in your pocket being like carrying the sun; the generosity of leaving the fruit as gifts to others is as warming as the sun itself.
Such a lovely vignette. I too felt the warmth from your story …so it reverberates on…