I like blueberries.

I like all the summer berries – strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries are favourites too. But blueberries are my number one.

I’m fortunate to live in a place where berries are plentiful in the summer months. I look forward to the period that used to start mid-July but now arrives in early June. It last until August. The season gets longer every year. Climate change is a bad thing, that’s just a fact; however, it has resulted in a longer berry season and this I enjoy.

I forget to be grateful for my locale often enough.

I’m not sure what it is about blueberries I like, exactly. The big ones are the best, in my opinion, though they aren’t the most flavourful. The smaller ones have a sharper, tarter tang. But I like the way the bigger ones squish between my teeth. None of them possesses a particularly robust flavour. And they can be an annoying fruit; the skins stick to my teeth and the seeds get jammed between my molars quite often.

I think it’s a tactile thing. I like round foods. I can even get a little compulsive with them, so I have to be careful.

I’m not sure if the affection for round food is an eating disorder thing or not; the compulsivity certainly is. So is the way I consume blueberries. When they’re in season, I often consume nothing else. Blueberries and cereal for breakfast, blueberries for snack, and a big bowl of blueberries serves to satisfy my mental requirements for lunch and dinner, which is still too often calorie-based.

I walk a fine line in the consuming.

I thought today that I’d like it if I had fresh blueberries available every day. I enjoy the frozen ones occasionally, but fresh is best. I wished for it, in fact. Give me fresh blueberries all year round, please and thanks. But then I started to wonder: would the fact that they’re regularly available diminish my enthusiasm? Would they suddenly have less charm?

I like apples. They’re very tasty. Especially Braeburns and Pink Lady’s. Delicious. But I don’t get ga-ga over apples because they’re always available. They’re never out of season, never out of stock. I don’t get a sense of anticipation when I think about apples. I don’t try and consume as many as possible because in a little while, they’ll be gone.

One take away from this is that we should take advantage of the opportunities available to us when they happen. Enjoy the things that come our way, because soon they’ll be gone. That’s true enough.

But I also feel sorry for the apples. How little appreciation they’re given. How little gratitude we give to the everyday. We write off the things that are common and save our reverence for things that are more apparently exotic.

But how awesome is it, really, that there is a plentiful supply of fruits and vegetables available to me, seasonal treats notwithstanding? I really don’t take the time to appreciate that enough either.