Today a student was talking to me about life in general when they made the statement: Life is like a bowl of cherries and I only get the pits.' I sat there for a moment thinking before asking what was wrong with the pits? The stunned student stammered that the pits was just that, hard and nothing to them.

My response was simple. You have picked a cherry which is your life to eat. You are nibbling at the fresh fleshy sweet fruit savoring the goodness. Becoming enthralled in the goodness that it is giving  to you but you are not thinking about what is in the middle until you take what you think is the last bite. Then you hit the hard spot with a crunch! It may have hurt you at the time as you were not thinking and unprepared for what was going to take place. You were expecting more goodness.

Looking at the pit you are angered. Not at the pit but at the loss of what you had expected. Yet take a look at that pit. Is it not a means of growth? By preparing the pit you may be able to grow a tree from this. A pit is another way of new growth there in your finger tips. If prepared well and tended to this pit will bring new growth to those that water and nurture it.

So if life is just the pits is it not the gift of growth you are actually finding within that sweet cherry that you relished? A chance at new birth to more good things to come your way? Our lives have those times that feel like the pits so to speak. One thing after another like checking for cheap health insurance or getting the children to appointments or even a death. But these are learning and growth periods for us.

Without the bad or hard knocks would you really appreciate all the good that is given to you each day? Having the hard things happen to us gives us the chance to appreciate and compare what it is we would prefer. We can compare the cherry flesh to the pit.

 Is the pit so bad after all to have in your possession?