HOPE, HEALING AND A BUCKET OF BERRIES
Blueberries are known to be healthy, make it to the list of Superfoods. I love them for a good reason,.they are like a nature's way of saying "Here, have some healing in a bite-sized form"
So when I set out to pick my own blueberries fresh from the farm, I imagined a peaceful, effortless experience—plucking handfuls of sweet berries, filling my bucket in no time, and walking away with nature’s best medicine.
Oh, how naive I was....
There I was sweating under the hottest sun of the Cape Town, I was eager to gather as much as I could in one go, but I realize that, the best, big and ripest blueberries weren't at arms reach. They were hidden under leaves, waiting for someone willing to stretch, squat and work for them. Oh the bending, I wanted to grab handfuls to gather more and fill my bucket in less time, thinking about my back. But the more I tried to take at once the berries slipped through my fingers, falling into the ground...especially the nice and biggest ones. This felt like betrayal, don't you think? So I had to slow down carefully pick them one by one. Best Blueberries pick ever... but it took time, a lot of strenght!
LESSON LEARNED
1.Rushing Makes You Lose the Best Ones/ holding everything once
I thought the process of picking up Blueberries was going to be smooth and easy. I wanted to fill my bucket quickly. I grabbed handfuls, but the best were falling to the ground. This reminded meof a conversation I once had with My Life Coach/ Business Coach- Couch Tshandu about the many business ideas I had and how I had tried to work on all of them at the same time and none of them was progressing, I thought I was being efficient and I had three kids to feed and take care of, so I had no time to waste. The same happens when I tried to juggle to much at once, most of the time it came with being a single parent. I would think that multi-tasking will help me accomplish more, but instead I experience a terrible burnt out. Coach Tshandu's advise to me was, "Nomi, the best results come when we focus on one thing at a time"
Healing works the same way. We often want to move on fast, to push through pain, to silence the memories and fill the empty spaces in our hearts as quickly as possible. But in rushing, we lose the most important parts—the deep moments of self-discovery, the small victories, the quiet but powerful lessons. Healing, like picking blueberries, is best done with patience, moment by moment and one step at a time, tending to each part of the journey with care.
2. The Best Things Require a Little Bending
The ripest, juiciest blueberries weren’t sitting at eye level, waiting to be picked. No, they were hidden beneath the leaves, requiring me to bend, stretch, and search for them. And let me tell you, after a while, my back started protesting!
Healing is the same way. The surface-level work—the distractions, the quick fixes—won’t bring true transformation. The real healing, the deep, soul-nourishing kind, requires effort. Sometimes, it means revisiting places we’d rather avoid, stretching beyond what’s comfortable, and staying in the discomfort long enough to uncover something truly valuable. This takes me back to the time of writing my book, (The Escape that Healed) I struggle with some of the Chapters. They forced me to revist the moments, open the covered scars that I thought had helead. They were still bleeding. I wanted to stop writing the book but I had to stretch past my fear, push through the pain, be willing to really go low, reach deep, trust the process and work for what I truly needed.
3. Even When You are Tired, Rest but Keep Going
The sun was blazing, my back ached, and my hands were stained with berry juice. I wanted to stop. I was tired. But my bucket wasn’t full yet. So I took a deep breath, took a rest and carried on to pick another berry, then another, until I had gathered enough....And isn’t that how life works? There are moments when we’re exhausted, when the journey feels endless, when giving up seems like the easier choice. But the only way to reach the finish line—the healing, the breakthrough, the success—is to keep going, even when we’re tired.
Hope - is believing that your bucket will be filled. Healing - is picking one berry at a time, even when it’s hard, even when you’re exhausted, trusting that the sweetness is coming.
So, to anyone on a healing journey: Be patient. Keep going. Keep reaching. Keep picking. And trust that, in the end, your bucket—and your heart—will be full. Because one day, you’ll look back, and you’ll see that all the effort, all the small moments of perseverance, all the times you chose to keep going even when it was hard—it was all worth it.
