Sweet Autumn Kale

This is an excerpt from the weekly News-Loveletter. If you would like it sent to your inbox directly (with all the other juicy bits, including a mini joy practice), you can add yourself to my mailing list here.

The temperatures have fallen. The picnic table sparkled with a thin layer of frost this morning. And the sugars in the kale and apples have now set. Though the stems have grown tough, the kale leaves are crisp and sweeter than ever. Complex carbohydrates in the cell walls have been transformed into many tiny sugars to keep the water in the kale from freezing. One result: best tasting kale ever.

That cold is a little stressful, but the kale is made for it. The dear plant adapts in ways that benefits the lives of many. Over the course of my life, I have willingly stepped into countless challenging circumstances only to meet my best, toughest, and sweetest self. Parenting, helping folks in crisis, supporting my mother as she neared death.

Under pressure, parts of us break down and fall away, and often the sugars rise up.

During which challenges are you at your sweetest? And which sweetnesses do you look forward to now as the chill settles upon us?