PUMPKINS FROM HEAVEN

'Those pumpkins are lovely', said the old lady standing behind me clutching her walker as I perused the local pie pumpkins outside the entrance to Central Market.

'Where are they from?', she asked the young man who was transferring them from a large box to the display table.

'From heaven', he replied.

'I've never heard of that place', said the old lady who stood beside her friend and confirmed that they in fact have never heard of 'Heaven', which they somehow assumed had to be in Texas seeing the pumpkins were local.

'Where is Heaven?', she asked the young man.

'Next to purgatory', he replied cheekily.

As I listened to this incredulous exchange of words, I was dumbfounded and wanted desperately to laugh. The two old ladies did not understand the joke but it seemed they did not care either. I grabbed a small pumpkin, which I later ended up not buying due to a pricing discrepancy, and walked into the store as this was my second stop today after a week of not going grocery shopping.

After almost an entire day of going from one store to the next, I had enough time when I got home to sit for a few minutes and enjoy a few slices of the raisin challah bread with crunchy peanut butter. The freshly baked assortment of breads is the only reason I drive the thirty minutes to the downtown Whole Foods and have been doing so since I moved here from California.

In addition to sitting down for a quick meal, I also had time for a quick Skype session with my boyfriend who hurried home when I told him I was leaving soon for my girls' dance hour. We chatted for 15 minutes and I was then on my way to watch my girls at their trial tap/ballet class.

Their stepmom brought them to class and we spoke for a while before her boys and my boy showed up with his father. After the class was over, we agreed to look for another place more focused on ballet as the girls seemed to enjoy it more than the tap dancing.

Coordinating efforts amongst everyone involved in this extended and blended family will take time. The wrinkles will eventually be ironed out and we will all move forward with our lives and with our children at the forefront.

After all, if the children see the adults trying to get along they will be happier and better able to deal with life's difficulties as they encounter them in the future. Everything happens for a reason. In time those reasons will be revealed to us. In the meantime, we can sit back and laugh about those happenstance moments, such as the two ladies discussing the pumpkins from heaven.