In thinking this week about what I might share with you, I recalled this incident that brought back a sweet memory.
The other day, my wife and I found blackberries at the market.
The package label read “Product of Mexico.” We are wary of buying foreign products. We don’t know what health and safety standards they were grown or produced in.
 Better to be safe than sorry.
I bought them anyway. The oven heat ought to kill anything, I told myself. 

The berries reminded me of distant memories of my father’s hat and my mother’s blackberry cobblers. 
In the summer, she often asked us to go into the woods to gather blackberries. They were abundant and she would promise to bake a deep dish cobbler for us. 
Sometimes she would go with my sister and me although she didn’t like the thorns. Yet she knew we loved blackberries.
Once in the North Carolina mountains, we spotted a row of blackberry bushes along the road. We begged our parents to stop and let us pick them. Our father stopped the car and we all piled out.
“Can we use your hat,” mother asked.
“Sure,” our father said. 

It was a hot day and it didn’t take long to fill up his straw hat.
He loved that hat. It protected his scalp under thinning hair from the sun.
The blackberries, of course, stained it. When we arrived home, we washed the berries in cold water in a colander.
My father looked at his stained hat,  laughed and threw it the trash can.
To make your own blackberry cobbler, here is an easy recipe. It will take 15 minutes to prepare and an hour to cook.  
1 stick butter, melted
2 cups of white sugar 
1 cup of brown sugar 
2 cups self-rising flour
2 cups milk
4 cups fresh (or frozen) blackberries
Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream
Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease a pair of 2-quart baking dishes with butter.
Rinse the blackberries in a colander and shake off moisture. In a medium bowl, whisk 2 cups white sugar with flour and milk. Whisk in the melted butter.
Pour batter into baking dish. Place blackberries evenly over the top of the batter. Sprinkle 1 cup brown sugar over the top. 
Bake until golden brown about 1 hour. Serve warm, topped with ice cream.
My father was a philosopher. Not a professional one but a philosopher nonetheless. He looked at life for lessons
“I can always buy another hat,” he said. “But I will always remember the fun we had picking the berries together.

That was a great life lesson for me, too, yet it was many years before I understood his meaning: Too often we put too much value on material things. They last a little time. It’s the affection we feel for each other and the memories we create together that last us a lifetime.
This Christmas please spend time creating memories with those you love. 
Years from now, when you become as old and grey as I am, you will look back on those memories fondly. You will find them more precious than any hats or other things we tend to value too much. 
Next: Your year ahead.

A gift suggestion
Do you know someone who is trying to find their way in life or looking for a new mission? Give them copy of Jerry Bellune’s inspiring book, “Your Life’s Great Purpose.” A personally autographed copy is only $20. Call him at 803-331-6695.

Jerry Bellune shares such stories each week with you in the Lexington County Chronicle. He beieves newspaper editors should care about their readers.