Amazing Raisins 07/13/22 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Most days, I eat oatmeal for breakfast. Usually, it has walnuts or pecans, maple syrup, coconut milk, a dash of pink himalayan salt, and raisins to top it off. Yummy, and healthy too. For the past few years, the raisins have been disappointing. Small, shriveled, and overly dry. It hasn't mattered if I bought a generic brand or national brand, nor if I purchased from one store or another. All of the raisins have been sub-par, compared to prior years. As I recall, the change was all at once one fine day, and has lasted this long. That's not a complaint, just an observation. I'm happy to have healthy food on the table, even if the raisins aren't perfect. Something in my head says it all relates to a supreme court decision about the federal government seizing raisins, back in 2015. There was this old law, from around the depression and WWII, that allowed the government to manipulate the raisin market. That was struck down, and then the raisins went to pot. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for getting rid of ridiculous government overreach, such as them being able to demand almost 1/2 the crop from the farmers, to do with as they please. I'm just saying, I believe the quality decline and the change in the law coincided. It does make sense, after all. Fast forward to July of 2022. I purchased a package of Great Value raisins from Walmart, a cheap store brand. A few mornings later, when the pack from Aldi runs out, I pull out the new package to top my oatmeal, when low and behold, a peeling back of the cellophane seal reveals the most plump, juicy, tantalizing raisins that I've ever laid eyes on. They're huge, like miniature prunes. More accurately, they're about the size of large dried cherries, but darker in color. The bouquet is sweet and fresh. Are they raisins? I try a few to be sure. Not only are they raisins, they're the most delicious raisins I've ever had in my life. I'm not a raisin connoisseur, so my opinion means very little I guess. But these are, in my small but objective view, the most amazing raisins ever. They are, at the very least, the most amazing raisins I've ever had. Of course, I realize that this hardly matters. But it is amazing! Will it last? Or will this one package be my only flirtation with raisin perfection in this life? Who cares! I am going to enjoy this package of raisins like I never have before. And when they're gone, if another comes along, I am going to enjoy it too. If this never happens again, no one will ever be able to rob me of the one magical package of raisins that danced through my existence in July of 2022. How many moments of perfection come and go in our lives, and how much do we enjoy them? Do we have the sense to grasp that pleasure that is certainly ours to take? If we can't relish the simple things, do we have any hope of properly appreciating the complex and large ones? I don't have the answers to these questions, but I do have a package of raisins, and that proves something. I hope you find something in your life--and that you can identify it--that proves something to you.