CHERIE M. QUEROL MORENO: Each day deserves gratitude

We ought to take a breath and observe the changing seasons to affirm our appreciation for the circle of life.  Everything comes in due time.  Everything passes.  Each day deserves gratitude.

Didn’t we start this year with a setback in the fight against the coronavirus when the omicron was discovered?  We had thought COVID would be behind us in a matter of months, but then the new variants triggered a surge of cases everywhere.  Suddenly we hunkered down again, avoided company, cancelled plans to celebrate milestones with family and friends.

We’ve prevailed, those who believed it our responsibility to take care of ourselves and others.  And here we are, still standing, looking forward to festivities with people who share our cautious return to a social rhythm, slowly and surely.

We only have to go to our local farmers’ market to witness human strength and resilience, just like nature’s bounty overcoming the elements.

Winter is when citrus reigns, when kumquats and oranges flood stands along with hardy leafy greens.

Spring is a reawakening, a prelude to the joys to come.  Tender buds mingle with young blossoms herald the end of winter.  Plump blueberries tumble from mini baskets, strawberries announce their arrival.

Summer is a heady parade of seductive scents emanating from fruit and flora, mixed in with the chatter of shoppers, those who tagged along with their elders then now pushing their own little ones’ strollers.  Precious cherries paint their mouths ruddy or golden in the brief months after Memorial Day.  Oh the tomatoes so honey-sweet that for some no other source will do anymore.

Then autumn, my favorite time of the year, delivers pumpkins and all sorts of squash followed by persimmon so pretty and luscious.

And the best harvest is that untouched by pesticides or fertilizers, lovingly nurtured with respect for nature, like the ones Roger Cruz and his son Ron Cruz present at their stand Saturday mornings at the Serramonte Center in Daly City.  Little wonder lines form endlessly, gratefully for their produce reaped just hours ago at their organic family farm.

Selections dwindle, a sign nature needs to take a break for other forces to take precedence. For the cycle to turn yet again.

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(Cherie M. Querol Moreno is Executive Editor of Philippine News Today.)