What The Pumpkin Patch Taught Me...

All my life, autumn is synonymous with hunting. When the temperature drops and the leaves begin to fall, it reminds me of deer hunting season, even though it's been more than four decades since I went hunting. I don't go deer (or elk, or antelope, or duck, or any other...) hunting, but last Friday we loaded up the van and brought our trusty dog to do a little hunting--it's Pumpkin Season.

The prey is not, shall we say, very elusive. In fact, they're just sitting on the ground waiting to be picked up. We hit our local commercial pumpkin patch and we bagged several prized orange trophies.

It's a yearly tradition for our family. We bypass grocery store pumpkins and we support the local patch. It's called Pack Farms and it's located in western Farmington. They've got a little bit of everything--activities for the kids, paid activities for the kids and parents (older kids...), but what they do best is allow hunters of all ages to seek out and pick one or several pumpkins.

We perused the already gathered inventory. They were good, but I wanted smaller pumpkins, mostly due to budgetary concerns. To the east of the collected pumpkins is a field where they grow them. The field was pretty well picked over and most of what as left were green, odd-shaped pumpkins people didn't want. I wondered if I'd find a nice small pumpkin to carve.

I decided to keep walking, keep searching.

I wandered into the part of the field where weeds were growing and there were fewer and fewer footprints. I guess most didn't bother to venture that far out.

It's too bad.

It's where I found what I was looking for.

I was able to find a couple of really nice smaller, non-rotting, non-green pumpkins. I began thinking as I hiked back to pumpkin civilization, I had to do more, walk farther, work more for the prize. Of course, those nice pumpkins might not have been there and if so, I would have just walked back and found something not as good.

Another thought came to mind. The reason all those pumpkins were still there is because others never made it that far out. They stopped and either found something, or turned back. They didn't go into the weeds.

It's not a terribly great anecdote, but it did make me think. I wonder what other opportunities are missed because we stopped too soon and if we'd only walked a little farther, worked a little harder, we'd find what we're looking for. It's something a pumpkin and a patch taught me.