Last week my step-daughter (G) had the day off from work and we decided to spend the fall afternoon apple-picking.  After a sweet treat lunch of lobster rolls and fries with my husband, we set off to a near-by farm. As he headed back to work and we walked to the car, he called after us not to forget “the low-hanging fruit”.   Maybe this simply meant he didn’t want to picture us high reaching on top of any precarious ladders, but the comment set G and I laughing, imagining picking swollen, over-ripe fruit, low to the ground.

     I was surprised how the statement stayed with me.  At the farm I was aware of all the rich, red apples that had fallen to the ground, mostly perfectly fine, as well as the ones on the lowest branches, ready to drop.  We were disappointed at first that the trees were not taller and that there was not a ladder in site.  This wasn’t going to be a very ambitious endeavor. We were soon taken though, by the jewels within reach.  The best picks were right before us.

    Even after the pies were baked and days followed, I kept musing on the phrase  “low-hanging fruit”.  Looking up definitions, many referred to easily accessible goals.  Urban Dictionary states: “Targets or goals which are easily achievable and which do not require a lot of effort”.  I thought about how this was counter to much of our culture’s philosophy for far-reaching, high goals, “aim for the stars” goals -the pairing of difficulty with worthwhile -the more stress, pain and effort, the more noble. 

    Throughout my working life, I most likely made similar correlations.  But lately, and with the resonance of this phrase in the back of my mind, I’m reminded in addition to our large, lofty goals, to appreciate and see the value of these low-hanging fruits:  people, things, feelings, right in front of us, deserving notice – simple targets, tasks, goals, which do not lesson their importance.  It gives me a Zen feel for the appreciation of essential, quiet, everyday goals, achieved with awareness.  Everyone has their own.  I won’t list mine….but I will say the apple pie was good.

Diane Giardi is an Artist, Arts Educator and Poet, who lives with her husband in Gloucester, MA.  She is an Adjunct Professor of Art at Endicott College in Beverly, MA.

Diane has an MFA in Ceramics from Syracuse University and a BS in Art Education from The University of Vermont.  She exhibits her work nationally and her poetry has been published in the Yale Journal of Humanities in Medicine, Long Island Sounds, The Journal of Clinical Nursing, The Endicott Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, The Wilderness House Literary Review, Ann Arbor Review and Minerva Press.  She is a member of the Massachusetts State Poetry Society and the North Shore Poets Forum.