My breakfast is smiling at me.
Before you go asking, no I am not crazy. At least, I don’t think I am, but I can’t be sure.
Regardless, my breakfast is smiling at me.
Breakfast this morning was a banana. I laid it down lengthwise with the curve up on the bar as I pulled down a glass to pour some apple juice.
Seeing it was better than a smiley emoji. It was also a good feel good greeting to start the day.
I needed it.
Sleep has alluded me recently. I’ve been wrestling with work stuff and trying to do my taxes. Uncle Sam keeps wanting to pick my pocket for some reason. I like him, but he sure is a greedy ol’ uncle.
Then, there was losing my ink pen and forgetting my computer password and the time my size Sasquatch shoe sole came apart in last week’s rain. There’s few things worse than wet socks and feet, except having wet socks and feet on a near freezing morning. To top it all off, I dropped my cup full of Diet Coke® and ice into my aforementioned shoe.
I needed something positive.
And there it was.
My banana was smiling at me.
I decided to change up breakfast a little this morning. Typically, I eat the first meal of the day on the run and it generally is a honey bun or chocolate chip cookies. My idea of a well-balanced breakfast is a chocolate chip cookie in each hand.
But, I decided last week to change it up some. For one thing, cinnamon in the honey buns has started to give me heartburn. That’s not fun. And chocolate chip cookies have started to cause my scale to groan — out loud.
So, in the produce section of the store, I stopped by the banana section.
It brought back two memories.
The first is from my friend, Ronda Thomas Sauls who related her grandbaby asking for a “banana in the wrapper.”
It’s a great, spot-on description and one I have adopted.
God in His perfect design, gave the banana its own natural packaging. He also made it where it is easy to tote and handle because it fits your hand very well.
And, He made them taste good — at least until they get overripe and mushy.
The second memory I have relates to testing the ripeness of bananas.
Grandma Deal got hooked on bananas once as a way to improve her potassium levels, which is another thing bananas are good for.
Just any yellow banana on the display would not do, however.
One of our pastor’s was the produce manager at one of the stores we frequented. After we got some Primitive Baptist predestination with our produce, she would go to work. The brother probably should have put her on the payroll with stocking the bananas.
She would unstack and restack the whole display, looking for just the right bunch of bananas. Sometimes, this exercise drove me, well... bananas. It couldn’t be too ripe. It couldn’t be too green. She had read us “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” when we were little and I think she was stuck on Goldilocks mantra: It had to be just right. That applied to bananas, too.
I don’t know if she ever checked the banana’s smile, though.
I think that was left up to me.
I saw it smiling at me laying on the bar this morning.
Remembering, I smiled back.
It’s going to be a great day.
My cousin Lynn use to say if you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours.
Maybe even give them a banana.
Just make sure it is just right.
• Jason Deal is a staff writer for The Blackshear Times. Reach him at [email protected].
