I eavesdrop shamelessly in the strawberry fields. I listen to the casual comments called back and forth across the row.

“How ya’ doin’, Frank?”
“Pretty good. You?”
“I’m almost done over here.”

There’s a quiet rhythm to berry picking, and conversations slow down to match that pace. Words and phrases drop softly into the air, like berries into green cardboard quart containers. Stories unfold about grandchildren, septic problems, celebrations and health scares.

This morning it’s damp and foggy. I stick to my row, picking berry after berry, sliding my slowly-filling container along with me. My sweater sleeves are sodden from reaching through the plants in search of ripe berries. My jeans are plastered to my lower legs.

I don’t remember picking berries with my grandmother or mother. Still, there were always quilted glass jars, gleaming in jewel tones in the pantry. In those days they poured melted wax across the top of the jam before capping it. I remember so clearly, so viscerally, opening the jar to that wax circle. Pushing it down. Watching it crack in two and scooping up the halves to reveal the preserved jam below.

In more recent years my mother-in-law and daughters picked with me. On the first day of the season, we were always in the fields early–chatting, laughing together, picking. What did we talk about then? Was there a solitary berry picker listening to our conversations? Our hour in the fields was followed by companionable hours in the kitchen, making batch after batch of jam.

Today, I pick alone. I’m content to listen. Still, a haze of melancholy lingers even as the fog lifts, revealing blue skies and a rare glimpse of sun.

Soon, I’ll have picked my fill and will head home. I’ll clean the berries, mash them and stir them as they boil on the stove. The air will hang hot, humid, and thick with the scent of warm strawberries. Later the freshly-filled hot jars will click as they seal. Preserving all the flavors. All the memories.

sun-ripened berries
generations guide my hands
ah, the jam is sweet

©Molly Hogan

What was it I heard recently? Was it on a podcast? NPR? I suspect the latter, but I can’t remember who was being interviewed, or even the topic. I’m not even sure what day I heard it. What I do remember, vaguely, is that a man was being interviewed and he talked about expecting the positive from people. He said that he has trust in people and that for the most part, it works out. When his trust is misplaced, he regards that as the tax he pays on the luxury of having a trustful outlook on the world. (Again, I am paraphrasing madly and perhaps erroneously here. If anyone heard this interview, or something resembling it, please chime in and let me know!)

It struck me how liberating living in trust is. To expect that people tend to treat others well. That if you ask for help, you’ll receive it. It even made sense that, on occasion, you’d have to be “taxed” on that. And the toll of living otherwise struck me as well. To live in a fearful, guarded way, expecting others to take advantage, to refuse to help, to treat you badly. I suspect I fall somewhere in-between the two on that continuum, leaning toward trustful, but certainly not fully there.

These ideas lingered with me — albeit vaguely.

Then, early on Monday morning, I was at the gas pump, filling up, en route to the grocery store to buy ingredients for a family brunch. I finished fueling, got back in the car and turned the key.

Nothing.

I laughed and shook my head. Really?

I turned the key again.

Nothing.

I called Triple A and was put on hold. With the phone on speaker, I started to push the car away from the pump toward a parking spot. Which worked great. Until it didn’t.

I looked around. There was a man at the gas pump adjacent to me, just finishing up.

“Excuse me, would you mind helping me push my car over there?” I asked him, pointing to my destination.

“No problem,” he replied. “Do you need a jump?”

“Well, I’ve called Triple A, so I should be okay…” my voice trailed away doubtfully as the droning hold music continued to issue from within the car.

“If I have my jumper cables I’ll be happy to help you out,” he said.

“That would be great,” I said.

A few minutes later I had hung up on Triple A, and we had moved the car into the designated spot. He pulled up next to me, then reached into his back seat and took out a pristine pair of jumper cables. Simultaneously, the opposite back door opened and his son stepped out.

“Thank you so much!” I said to both of them, “I’m so sorry to take up part of your day.”

“No worries! We’ve got the whole day,” the man replied, smiling.

The boy walked to the front of the car. Immediately, his father began explaining.

“So, the yellow is the positive and the black is negative.” He handed the other end of the cables to me. “Make sure to hold those apart,” he said over his shoulder.

Then he went on explaining to his son. Step by step. “This is the battery….” ” You attach these here…”

It was such a natural teaching moment in so many ways. Superficially, he was teaching his son how to jump a stalled car. But more importantly, he was also teaching him to take the time to help others. To be kind. To be helpful. To foster trust.

I thought back to that interview and the idea of regarding people and the world through a lens of trust.

Five minutes later, my car started on the first key turn. We disengaged the cables and I set out to the auto parts store. When I left, after effusive thanks, the man and his son still had their heads bent close together, continuing to explore their car’s engine.

I pulled out of the parking lot, my breakfast plans derailed, my wallet soon to be lighter, with a big smile on my face and a light heart. And I felt myself move along that hypothetical continuum, a bit more toward the trusting side.

And it felt really good.

It’s early morning on the last Tuesday before school gets out for the summer. I’m lying in bed, unsure what woke me. Was it looming last day worries and deadlines? The vague throb of a troublesome tooth breaking through its ibuprofen buffer? Perhaps it was the owls again.

Our home is surrounded by woods, and the barred owls have been especially active recently. We both thrill to hear their song off and on throughout night. Tonight they’ve woken us again and again with their soft calls.

Once, earlier, wanting to share the moment, I’d whispered to Kurt, “Did you hear that?”.

“Yes,” he’d answered softly, and I knew we were both listening together.

Now, hours later, I listen again carefully, hopefully.

Finally, I hear the call. Not the iconic who-cooks-for-you, but a long warbling call.

Whoot.

I hear Kurt’s breathing change as he moves from sleep to listening again. We’re quiet together, waiting for the next call.

Sometimes it’s distant. Sometimes it’s closer. Usually there are only a few calls and then dark silence. I always imagine mighty wing strokes and flight.

Eventually, the owl calls one more time.

Whoot.

For long minutes afterward, I listen. Tuned to the dark.

Kurt’s breathing eases back into sleep.

I’m still wakeful. My mind wanders. My ears strain for the next call.

Later I hear it, faint and far, far away, on the edges of sleep and sound.

And then, as if comforted somehow, I drift back into sleep.

It all began with a misunderstanding. Or perhaps mistranslation is more apt.

What she said was, “You can’t dance in the cafeteria. You can dance at recess.”

What they heard, in the mysterious, marvelous alchemy of first and second grade brains, was “Dance off at recess tomorrow!”

But it didn’t end there, because the teacher, a truly wonderful creature, decided to go for it. She later mentioned the impending dance-off to a colleague, a seventh grade teacher, who announced, “I’m in!” and who then raised the stakes by adding, “And I’m doing the worm!” This, of course, guaranteed a seventh grade audience.

The next morning the aforementioned wonderful teacher stationed herself in the hallway, and as the first and second graders filed past, she proclaimed: “Remember! Dance off at recess!”

Of course, I knew none of this as we headed out to recess on Friday. I’d heard a few murmurs about dancing from students as they entered the classroom, but figured they had their own plans for recess. And they did. They just weren’t what I imagined.

When the seventh graders all filed out the door to the playground ahead of my class, I wondered about it. This was not their recess time. I shrugged it off as tired teachers in May + sunny Friday = extra recess. But they didn’t disperse in the typical seventh-grade fashion. Instead, they moved en masse to line up at the edge of the soccer field. Most of the first and second graders headed that way as well.

I tried to see over the wall of seventh grade backs.

What was going on?

I walked to the edge of the field, keeping half an eye on the kids who were on the playground. After all, I was supposed to be on recess duty.

“What’s up?” I asked another teacher.

As she turned to fill me in, music filled the air and we both turned back to the field to look. The kids, and quite a few teachers, had suddenly launched into dance moves all over the soccer field. Arms and legs were flying. Everyone was smiling. I saw some unexpected faces and realized that the resource room teachers had come out to join in the fun, bringing their students along. Teachers and students from across the school laughed and danced together. Cheering erupted as the seventh grade teacher demonstrated her surprising aptitude for “The Worm”. Not to be outdone, several younger students joined in, bucking and squirming across the tender May grass.

Some kids were marvels of coordinated movement and rhythm, and others were whirling dervishes of chaos. I watched several students, whom I knew carried heavy burdens, embrace the magic of the moment, dancing as if they didn’t have a care in the world, their faces radiant. It was all quite wonderful.

For the next twenty minutes, I semi-fulfilled my recess duty responsibilities, while watching kids and teachers, dance, dance, dance. The music, impeccably planned, stopped just when it was time to blow the whistle. As we all headed toward the building, comments floated in the air.

“Did you see my moves?”

“We should do that every day!”

“That was SO.MUCH. FUN!”

It really was fun, but it was so much more than that as well.

I may have pieced together some of the timeline and events inaccurately, and I can’t begin to tell you what music was playing, but I can tell you, I’ll never forget that moment. For twenty minutes, the sun was shining, and there was laughter and music. And within me swelled a sort of fierce joy and a burning determination to nurture and protect these shining little humans and all the good things that happen at school.

It was joyful, uplifting and, quite simply, amazing.