Our name “Pear Necessities”
“The truth is my mother never just found the perfect pear from the store. She just bought pears. It’s what she did when she got them home that mattered. She would put them in a paper bag and wait. She was patient.”
I was reminiscing about my mother to a friend of mine.
The holidays were coming up and it was the first without my mother. While there were many holidays spent apart over the years and she had woven herself through them, always in the background, a whisper. From music to food to just a sense of love, she was there. She gave me a sense of what Thanksgiving and Christmas should be, could be, no matter where I was. From baking cookies with friends or cooking turkeys for large groups, there could always be a sense of wonder, of warmth. This was the first time though that I could not call her and ask her once again for that recipe or a suggestion for something new or simply hear her voice.
All I need is a good song, an oven and a friend.
I was recounting to a friend of mine that my mother loved to put out a really good tray of fruit and cheese. She took pride in a good cheese, a nice crisp apple and a perfect pear. I marveled at how she could always get the perfect pears. Mine were always hit or miss. As she often did, my friend took that musing and made it come to life.
I soon received a glass and a silver pear from her. The stem of the silver pear arrived broken and I thought about telling her, but realized it wasn’t necessary. It was easily fixed and there was some cosmic poetry to the pear arriving “broken”.
The truth is my mother never just found the perfect pear from the store. She just bought pears. It’s what she did when she got them home that mattered. She would put them in a paper bag and wait. She was patient. She knew the proper environment and a bit of time and love would bring something truly lovely. My mother also knew there was no such thing as the perfect pear.
Thank you Dea for the inspiration.
The 1960’s movie The Jungle Book based on Rudyard Kipling’s book, was a childhood classic in my family. Ever reminding us that when we let go, what we really need will come to us.
Bare Necessities
“Look for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities forget about your worries and your strife. I mean the bare necessities, old mother nature's recipes that bring the bare necessities of life. And don't spend your time lookin' around for something you want that can't be found. When you find out you can live without it and go along not thinkin' about it I'll tell you something true, the bare necessities of life will come to you.”
