Jennifer Plesko

This weekend ended up being a weekend of firsts for me.

It was the first time I attempted to make a cherry pie, and the first crust I’d made from scratch. It was the first time I’d ridden on the back of an ATV sitting on a feed bucket. It was the first time I’d picked mustang grapes and eaten them off the vine. It was the first time I’d seen an apiary in person, and the first time I’d been stung by a bee. It was the first time I’d ever kneeboarded, and I only fell once. It was the first Max Stalling concert I’d been to, and with his tall, lanky frame and his t-shirt and Wranglers, my high school boyfriend came to mind.

Maybe it was spending quality time with family and those who feel like family, but I felt a lot of joy this weekend. It was the kind of solace I hadn’t felt in awhile. Just the feeling that, although there are things in my life that are painful, there are also things that are wonderful. I am still more blessed than I have any right to be.

So this morning as I got ready in my nice apartment for the job that I love, I felt the bee stings on my scalp, the sunburn in the part of my hair, and the kneeboarding bruises on my legs, and I just smiled.