Are you ready to meditate with Corrie?
Make sure that you're all comfortable and warm in your bed,
That the light is just right in your room so you can relax your body and let go of your busy day.
Ellie was sat looking at a punnet of strawberries on the kitchen side.
Her mom had just washed them so they were all nice and clean.
She was about to devour the whole punnet of strawberries.
Strawberries were one of her favorite things to eat and it was that time of year where they're sweet and juicy and perfect.
She grabbed a hold of the punnet of strawberries and took them to the dinner table,
Sat down and stared at them almost in awe at how pretty they were.
They were the perfect looking strawberry.
Her mom had got them from the farmer's market so she knew that they were going to be good.
They hadn't traveled 10 billion miles across the world to get to her.
They were literally grown just down the street and the farmer that grew the strawberries was a very happy farmer.
He was always very jolly and had a big nice friendly smile on his face every time they saw him at the farmer's market.
This made her feel even happier about her strawberries as if her strawberries were grew by a happy person which meant that the strawberries actually tasted happier because he wasn't grumpy when he was growing his strawberries.
He was a happy farmer.
Happy farmers equals happy strawberries.
That's what Ellie thinks.
She didn't need anything on the strawberries.
They didn't need sugar,
They didn't need cream,
They didn't need anything.
Ellie poured out the strawberries onto a plate and noticed the strawberries at the bottom were not as perfect looking.
One strawberry in particular was very big and bulbous and lumpy looking.
It didn't look like the perfect strawberry shape.
It had a really nice perfect color.
It was probably still delicious but it got her thinking.
Is she as excited about eating that strawberry that had lumps and bumps and it was different looking than the strawberries that looked absolutely perfect on top?
There was about five perfect strawberries.
You couldn't say that there was anything wrong with them at all.
Then there was this one big giant lumpy bumpy strawberry.
There was a strawberry that was longer than it should be.
It didn't look as wide and plump and perfect shaped.
It was quite oblong,
Which is weird for a strawberry,
She thought.
And then there was a strawberry that was very very small and it had a lot more seeds on it,
Especially around the bottom.
I'm sure a taste test would provide more information,
She thought.
But from first glance,
Some of these strawberries were not as pretty.
Does that matter?
Will they all still taste delicious?
Or does it matter if the strawberries look perfect?
Do you get a particular idea of the perfect strawberry that makes you think that the perfect strawberry is gonna taste so much better than the big giant lumpy bumpy strawberry?
And if Ellie was completely honest with herself,
She said yes.
She said that to her,
The perfect looking strawberry,
Round,
Perfect shape,
Perfect colour,
Perfect size,
Would obviously taste better.
Right?
Because it looks so good.
Whereas the one that was oblong didn't look as attractive,
The one that was big and giant and lumpy and bumpy didn't look as attractive,
The one that was tiny and had lots and lots of seeds,
Especially around the bottom,
Did not look as attractive.
Ellie thought about whether she had been secretly,
Somehow,
Programmed to think that only the perfect looking strawberries would be perfect to eat.
And then she thought about all of the commercials on TV.
They always show the perfect looking strawberries.
She thought about the pictures at the supermarket when they were advertising strawberries.
They are always the perfect looking strawberries,
Right?
She thought about when people draw strawberries.
She loves to paint strawberries.
She only paints perfect looking strawberries.
Why is that?
What's so wrong with the big giant lumpy bumpy strawberry?
She picked up the big giant lumpy bumpy strawberry and sniffed it really hard.
It smelt perfect.
She closed her eyes and bit the big giant lumpy strawberry and tasted it.
It tasted perfect.
She opened her eyes and put the strawberry down.
Well,
You wouldn't believe it,
Would you?
She thought to herself.
And here's me thinking that only those five perfect looking strawberries would be the best ones.
She picked up the oblong strawberry next.
She closed her eyes and smelt it.
The strawberry passed the smell test.
It smelt delicious.
She bit the strawberry with her eyes closed and tasted it.
It tasted absolutely perfect.
Juicy,
Sweet,
Full of strawberry flavor.
It was a wonderful strawberry.
She opened her eyes and put the rest of it back on the table and picked up the tiny tiny strawberry with so many seeds.
Closed her eyes and smelt the strawberry.
It smelt delicious.
She kept her eyes closed and tasted the strawberry.
There was a slight difference in texture because it had so many seeds,
But it was crunchy and sweet and perfectly delicious.
There wasn't much left of that strawberry to put back down on the table because it was so tiny.
But she put what was left back down on the table and then she picked up one of the five perfect perfect beautiful picture-perfect strawberries.
She closed her eyes and smelt it.
It smelt just like the others.
Beautiful.
She tasted it with her eyes closed and bit the strawberry in half.
The juice ran down her chin.
It was a perfect strawberry.
She put the other half down on the table and looked at all of the strawberries there in front of her.
Ellie discovered that even though some of the strawberries looked different,
They didn't look as perfect as the others.
They were just as delicious.
This made her,
Strangely,
Think about some of her friends.
Her mind went to people.
Ellie was thinking about how she judged the strawberries.
She assumed that the oblong one,
The small one with lots of seeds,
And the giant one with lumps and bumps would not taste as good.
She assumed that because they didn't look the same as what she'd been programmed to think was perfect and beautiful,
Like the other five strawberries.
This made her think about her friends.
The people in her life.
The people that she knew and the people that she didn't know.
The people that she met on the street that looked a certain way and the people that she knew that looked a certain way.
It made her think about all of the different kids at school.
They all look so different.
Some of them,
Like her,
Are blonde with blue eyes.
Some of them have dark skin and dark hair.
Some of them have almond-looking skin with brown hair and brown eyes.
Some of her friends have white,
White skin with black hair and bright green eyes.
Some of her friends have got red hair with lots of freckles and green eyes.
Some of her friends look just like her with blonde hair and blue eyes and some of her friends look very different with very deep,
Deep,
Deep brown skin and curly brown hair with deep,
Deep,
Beautiful brown eyes.
All so different.
Some of them are super tall.
Some of them are very,
Very oblong,
Just like her oblong strawberry.
Very tall and thin.
Some of them are more round and plump with lumps and bumps.
Some of her friends are very,
Very normal or what you would be programmed to think is normal looking.
Just average.
Just like the strawberries.
The five strawberries that looked,
Assumingly,
As if they were perfect strawberries.
Some of her friends at school,
She thought about,
Looked like that.
They looked as if they were perfect.
Like they didn't have any worries in the world.
They dressed perfect.
They acted perfect.
They seemed to have lots of friends and be perfect.
But were they any different from the ones that were oblong,
Tall,
Small,
Round,
Square,
Thin.
You name it.
She realized that all of her friends and all of the people in her life that she knew and she didn't know,
That were strangers,
Were very similar to strawberries.
Not that Ellie was gonna start to go around and bite everyone in half and see if they all taste the same.
That would be weird.
But Ellie kind of thought about it like,
If you opened all of us up,
We probably all look the same inside.
We have a heart.
We have lungs.
We have liver and kidney.
We have blood and bones and muscles and tissues.
We have hair.
We have eyes.
We have ears.
We have noses.
We have all of the same things.
We all breathe the same.
All of our bodies work the same on the inside.
Unless,
Of course,
We're sick or there's something else going on in our life.
But generally,
Ellie thought that we are all the same on the inside.
Just like the strawberries.
Genius,
She thought.
But then Ellie had a moment where she felt a little bit sad.
Because,
Just like the strawberries,
Ellie assumed that the ones that didn't look so perfect wouldn't be as good.
She assumed that about the people that she met sometimes.
If they didn't look so perfect on the outside,
Maybe they weren't so perfect on the inside.
Yet,
In her analogy,
We're all the same on the inside.
Just like the strawberries.
But then,
She thought,
What about when you bite into a strawberry that doesn't taste so nice?
What about when you bite into a strawberry that's yucky?
That's gone off?
That's bad?
Or that's not sweet?
That's actually sour and bitter and not nice at all?
And then she realized that that's also a bit like people.
Some people,
For whatever reason,
Might not be as sweet.
They might not be as nice.
They might be bad inside.
It's always good to be able to use your judgment to distinguish between sweet and bad.
Good and bad.
Right?
But Ellie decided that she was no longer going to judge the lumpy bumpy strawberries or the oblong strawberries or the tiny strawberries with lots of seeds.
That was silly.
Because she realized that they all were delicious inside.
Just like most people.
All different on the outside,
But delicious on the inside.
The end.
