You Can’t Have the Peach Without the Pit 🍑

Dr. Seuss had it right,

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened”

🍑 When we eat a peach, do we ever focus on the pit? Happily, not even the sourest among us would. We savour the fruit because it’s juicy, messy, and full of flavour. The pit is there, yes, but it’s not the focus.

Life works the same way. We can’t have the sweet moments without the tough ones. The pits give the peach its shape, just as challenges give our lives depth. Hard times make the good ones all the more satisfying.

This year, my dad’s peach tree, silent for so long, suddenly burst into late-blooming, peachapalooza. He would have been so proud, exclaiming at every bite, “What a beauty!” He’s no longer here to taste them, but his spirit showed up in baskets of fruit. Now I can smile and turn his peaches into legacy: jars of jam, nectar, compote, and my Superma’s famous crostate.

And while I’m on reinvention, we can smile for what we once had, or who we once were all the while embracing who we are now. I can’t imagine a delicious jar of homemade organic peach jam calling itself “a former peach.” In the same way, I’m not a “former head of children’s programming at Universal Studios.” Former is not the focus (though you get a a pass if you are a former astronaut!) I am simply who I am today, producer, mother, writer, property manager, jam enthusiast and, and, and... always ripening into the next version.

Science tells us our brains absorb the ideas we feed them. If we linger on the pit—on the negatives and the endings—our thoughts grow bitter. But if we train ourselves to focus on the fruit, life feels richer, more nourishing, more sweet.

Of course, you can’t have the peach without the pit. But you can choose where you put your attention. I choose the fruit and the fruitfulness.

So, when life doesn’t feel peachy keen, remember that the hard times make way for the good times and even late bloomers can bear fruit.  We are always transforming, and while we are able to hold or pick or eat a peach , we are always full of flesh and life.