Picking Cherries When They're Ripe

I am a practical woman. Even my husband says so. I don't really have the romantic, sentimental side that so many people have. I tend to think that particular aspect of my personality was greatly shaped by being raised by a father who, as one of 16 children in an impoverished family, didn't ever have a choice not to be practical.
When family members give me gifts, I am always appreciative. I also explain to them that I will use the gift. And I do. Whether it is something brand-new from Target or a 150 year old family heirloom, I use it. As often as possible. Especially the family heirlooms. I've always felt that a little of a person's spirit ends up in a cherished and well-used item and I enjoy feeling a connection with an ancestor when I use items.

My grandmother's old bowl? On my kitchen island right now full of clementines. My husband's great-grandmother's blanket chest? In my bedroom holding linens and being opened frequently. All through our house are items we have been lucky enough to inherit and use. We also treasure them.
When my children were babies and were gifted with delicately smocked or embroidered clothes, I let them wear those clothes. On any ordinary day. They spit up in them and on them. Diapers leaked in them. Some folks probably consider that a crime but every time my kids wore them, I derived intense pleasure seeing them being used.
I really don't believe in saving things. What good are material items if they aren't used and cherished? In my opinion, that is how memories are made.

Which brings me to my cherries. We have a very small cherry tree we started from a cutting from my father's prize tree. This spring, it was finally mature enough to produce some cherries. Maybe 15 cherries. My husband noticed the cherries about an hour before our youngest child was due home from school.
We waited.

When he came home, my husband immediately told him to go pick the cherries and eat them. He raced to the tree.

Not a single cherry was left on that tree. Birds had eaten them all in that solitary hour we had waited.

Never again. I will extend my enjoy life as soon as you can policy to all aspects of our lives from now on.

Life is too short to save experiences for later.