Cherries on Top!

Cherries on Top!

©Allen Merritt (2015)

I remember ice cream sundaes and banana splits.

I remember asking for something and using the button, “Pretty please with a cherry on top!”

I have to smile at the nostalgia of those memories, especially because of the cherries. I love fresh cherries in season. 

There are always fun things in life that stand out in our minds, aren’t there? Needles-to-say, the dreadful also stands out, if not more prevalently.  In fact, I am thinking how the bad actually stands out more like a sore thumb (cliche intended). Reconciling those experiences and leaning toward the good is always the challenge.

Erma Bombeck once wrote a book called If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, Then Why am I in the Pits? What a great title for her humorous writings and outtakes on life. When life gets you down and is all frenzied and chaotic we need to find our funny bone and have a little laugh, ease the tension. Thus, humor becomes the inevitable cherry on top.

I remember making up my own little ditty tune that I could sing to myself in those crazy moments. It went something like this:

Just when you think life is fine and dandy

Just when you think everything is A-okay

You suddenly develop a crazy itch

A curious twitch

Life’s a bitch

Life’s a bitch

With this crazy curious itch

Oh,Yes, they say life’s a bowl of cherries

So why do I feel I’m always in the pits

Life’s a bitch

Life’s a bitch

'Cuz of a crazy and curious twitch

But you just can’t scratch it

Though you gotta, needda and wanna scratch 

You better not scratch!

Life’s a bitch

Life’s a bitch

Life iiiissssssssssssssssssssssssssss…life’s a bitch!

Get the idea? For me, I cannot think of this ditty without breaking up in laughter. Suddenly, the world seems a better place through the humor and silliness of it all.

It occurs to me there is something to the idea of cherries and their pits. Generally speaking, we think of the pits as a bad thing, but if you really think about it, the pits are a good thing, too. How so? Well, if you like cherries, then the pits serve a purpose. Take those seeds and plant them in fertile soil and watch them grow and produce more cherries. There is something positive in those pits after all. So it is with life. Every pitfall has it's positive upswing. 

In meditating on the life is a bowl of cherries analogy, I am reminded of how important it is to stop and take a look around, breathe in some fresh air and have a moment to see all the good out there. There are still beautiful things in the world despite it all. Focus on that. Therein lies the positive uplift we need. 

There is a song about life as a bowl of cherries published in 1931 by Ray Henderson and Lew Brown¹. 

Life is just a bowl of cherries
So live it, love it, wriggle your ears
And think nothing of it, you can't do without it
There's no two ways about it
You live and you laugh at it all²

Here's a fun clip of Judy Garland singing the entire version of the song Life is a Bowl of Cherries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6KR9fwHK-0

Hope your week is filled with wonderful surprises topped up with a cherry or two.

Cheers!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Is_Just_a_Bowl_of_Cherries¹ (Viewed on 8/26/2015)

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/j/judy_garland/life_is_just_a_bowl_of_cherries.html² (Viewed on 8/26/2015)