The Pomegranate

About 5 weeks ago I bought a beautiful red shiny pomegranate from the grocery store. It was as large as a softball, and took up my entire palm. It sat in a bowl on my tiny kitchen island, then I moved it to the butcher block cutting board, then moving again and again, if I needed the space it sat on.

Today when I felt it, I could press it a bit, and decided that it was time to open it up and see if it was still edible.

I carefully cut only one slice in the pomegranate, and then gently pulled it apart. My pink

" Life is Good" shirt now has bright red spots on it, but I don't mind.

Separating the seeds from the white membrane, I spent about a half hour until the entire fruit was released from it's beautiful red jacket. And it was amazing. Red jewels bursting with juice, only a few immature seeds and a few iffy seeds. The fruit gave up almost two cups of seeds.

I put the pomegranate seeds in a blue glazed bowl on the counter. I left a tablespoon near it so that I could spoon a few seeds and snack on them. They were so sweet, not too tart. The evening was young and I found myself going back to that bowl many times over the hours.

Finally, here I sit in my office, at my work table, with the blue bowl and the tablespoon, eating all of the remaining pomegranate jewel like seeds. With much joy.

One of my small pleasures of the holiday season. Is there no fruit more beautiful than a pomegranate? I think not.