Picking and Pondering in the Huckleberry Patch

I remember going up in the mountains even as a child and picking huckleberries with my Dad and Mom and the family.  The fruit was free and best of all it was delicious.  Sometimes it was rather plentiful and sometimes the berries were few and far between.  Under the best of circumstances a good picker could get about a gallon in four hours.  There are many who would say that no matter how good they are, they are not worth picking at that rate.  They do not grow in clusters and the berries are really quite small, but to me it became a chance to get out into nature and the mountains that I love and listen to the breeze in the trees and contemplate the beauties of of nature, give thanks, and enjoy a little solitude.  The berries were less the goal than the byproduct of these outings into the August woods.  This year I decided to go and check them out a week ago.  As I walked into the woods and began to come on to the huckleberry bushes, they were mostly green, but being the veteran that I have become, I thought of a particular spot on the hill that had been logged out several years ago and was now a little more open to the the sunlight.  I made my way further up the hill and was soon rewarded with huckleberries, mostly ripe, by the millions.  I sat down with the two buckets I had brought with me and began to pick.  Seven hours later I walked down the hill feeling highly rewarded and determined to come back again the next day,which I did, and got another two gallons.  I felt really good about this.  I was telling Reed, my bother, about it and he said he'd like to go and get some, so I volunteered to pick him up and take him to my special spot in the mountains.  We spent the day there and got the expected amount of huckleberries, but even better than that, we go to sit and an talk and philosophize for about eight hours.  Truly, this was one of the best days I have spent in a long, long time.  It's interesting how those youthful arguments have progressed more into a mutual probing of one another's minds and then a listening for the Spirit to direct our thoughts and our words as we discuss the important truths as they are revealed in the quiet solitude of the the woods and the huckleberry patch.  I felt a closeness,not only of our Father in Heaven, but also of our own earthly Mother and Father who undoubtedly were looking down upon us on Tuesday as we picked an pondered in the huckleberry patch.