If you had a choice to buy apples that have shiny and crispy skin or ones that have spots and are wrinkled, which ones you would be going with?
When I was a kid I would visit my grandma on the countryside with my parents. She had a small farm and a big piece of land. She grew apples, grapes, veggies and whatnot. But there was this gorgeous tall cherry tree in the middle of her huge backyard. It kept inviting me to climb it. And in summer it was loaded with gigantic crispy dark cherries. I would eat myself full and just enjoy life.
One day my grandma asked me if I liked the cherries. What a question. I explained her how I picked those biggest and shiniest one and how amazingly sweet those were. She looked at me, paused for a while, smiled and said "Are you avoiding the rough looking cherries?" And by that I knew exactly what she meant. Some cherries had raptured skin and they had these cuts that looked like healed wounds. I would not even touch those. I said to her "Well, of course I am avoiding those!". Now she had an even bigger smile and said: "Next time you go up there, try one of those. You won't regret it I promise". I was quiet. I could not imagine myself eating those ugly cherries. But I trusted her.
It wasn't much later that I was up on the tree again. And there they were. The ugly and scarred cherries staring at me. I picked one, looked at it, took a deep breath and bit. "Wow!" was the only thing I could think of. The crispy and juicy sweetness exploded in my mouth like a nuclear bomb. It was out of this world. Needless to say that those scarred cherries were now my best friends and I wouldn't even look at the shiny and beautiful ones.
When I climbed down the tree I ran to my grandma to share my great discovery. She was right and I wanted to know what was going on. She explained to me how those ugly cherries were picked by birds. Birds loved the juicy sweetness too so they fed on them. But the cherry tree wouldn't drop them, instead they healed. What that meant was that the tree was now sending lots of healing - sugary - stuff to those cherries. And when they healed they would become those miniature cherry bombs full of sweetness and joy.
I remember this as if it was yesterday. In reality, it had been 40+ years now. But it stayed with me. It took me a while to fully understand it though. You see, amazing quality stands on its own. It does not need perfection. It does not need labels and trophies. It just is. And we either recognize it or we just walk past it. Whether we see it or miss it, the world remains the same. But we..., we either get richer by experiencing it or poorer for missing it. The choice is ours.
Same applies to our shopping habits. We can go with the easy way and have it delivered today from Amazon by simply following our routines and end up with something that we think is the top of the world. Or we could reach out a bit further, wait a bit longer, do the research and purchase the right one. The one that you truly love, the one that makes someone happy, puts money into pockets of those who worked hard on it and maybe even do something good for our planet. The choice is ours.
So which apples would you pick? Let me give yo a hint..."Next time you go up there, try one of those ugly ones. You won't regret it I promise"