Have you ever grown tomatoes? They're not terribly hard plants to maintain. Good soil, enough water and sunshine, a bit of support around the edges. And you'll get terribly spoiled with fruit that tastes so much better than anything you can find in a store. Sure, there are bugs and birds who don't always want to leave the pickings for you and steal a bite or two. But for the most part, they don't eat much. Then comes the end of summer. There will probably have been some dry spells. At least a few days of extreme heat. And after things like that, the tomatoes aren't as pretty as they were at the beginning of the season.
Instead, cracks and dark spots mar the skin. Sometimes, there are holes where other creatures have nibbled. Or a mushed side because it pressed into another tomato for too long. But those are only part of the fruit. The rest of it has a lot of good. You just have to be willing to find it. I take all those ugly tomatoes and peel them, cut out the bad spots, and cook them down into sauce or salsa or soup. And enjoy them even more for the work put into it. They could've ended up simply fertilizing my garden for next spring, but this is so much nicer. In this day and age where people are always posting "perfect" pictures of themselves on the internet, it's easy to compare ourselves and only see the "bad" spots. Maybe we're not as thin. Or have some cracks around the edges. Or whatever. But you know what? God knows there's a lot of good within, no matter what the outside looks like. Just like those tomatoes. We just have to take the time and effort to dig it out so the rest of the world can see it, too. Do you feel like an ugly tomato? Don't forget that the outside isn't all there is to you.
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This is a place for me to share thoughts and ideas not just related to writing. Thoughts about what's going on in my life, about an idea I got that I thought shareworthy, or just a funny anecdote.
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