sweet corn

Ah, it's that time again every Midwest summer when sweet corn is a staple on the table.
Butter dripping, salt and pepper, lip smacking stuck in your teeth corn can be made by boiling, grilling, microwaving, or I have even heard of frying it. Caught my mom tying a bag of some to my door two days ago. It's already gone. My favorites are peaches and cream, and super sweet.
The farmers markets and grocery stores are busting with corn this time of year.

Today, I was reminded how much I take getting corn on my plate for granted.

I have been helping the Riverbend food bank out this summer. We've been fortunate to have some good produce to give away. Watermelons, cucumbers, squash, apples, and potatoes have been put in the hands of the hungry. This week John Deere donated all their sweet corn from their test plots to the foodbank. It went out to the folks in Clinton at the mobile site that was on the news.
We packed up the rest today and took it to low income places in the QCA.
It went to the disabled, seniors, and those struggling to make ends meet. Each hand today that was given a bag of corn was very grateful. They thanked us, but the thanks goes to everyone who planted the seeds, who nurtured the growth, to God for the sunshine and the rain, to those who harvested the fields by hand, who then packed it and delivered it to the foodbank. Feeding the hungry literally takes so many people. It can be exhausting and it can be challenging in so many ways.

Today seeing that corn in a needy person's hand challenged me to remember to be grateful.
To be thankful that I can go buy a sack of corn or find one hanging on my door.

The folks I helped today were helping me see that something as simple as corn on my plate has a sweetness to it that is beyond just food.  I'm thankful to God and to all those who grow this wonderful  tasting treat that I look forward to every year.  This treat brought joy to a lot of faces today, and it radiated to me.

Author Joseph Campbell wrote “find a place inside where there is joy, and the joy will burn out the pain". That feeling of utter joy today burned out the pain of hunger.

There was a “sweet sweet spirit" surrounding us as we delivered food today.  And I know for sure it was the “Spirit of The Lord." Gotta love a good Southern Gospel song, and gotta love
when you get to live it out.