Fruit sales proves to be a life lesson for this priest

I have several fruit trees in my back yard. Most are citrus trees. When harvest time comes, I give most of them away to family, friends and neighbors. Any citrus that I have left over, I sell at a small fruit stand in front of my house. This pays for the fertilizers and other expenses of growing the trees.

Since I cannot attend the stand at every moment, I did like so many people around here do, I used the honor system. I am happy to say that the vast majority of people are honest. They put the money for the citrus in an envelope provided for them and put it in a mail slot.

However, I did find out that not everyone was honest. (Of course, I knew that but I thought that the dishonest people lived in town and not in the country.)

On two different occasions, someone stole all the bags of citrus and the container with the envelopes. The first time was during the Christmas holidays. I figured that this was probably the work of some teenagers out of school and bored to death. So I kept selling.

About three weeks later, someone stole two bags of oranges. The next day I was missing three bags of grapefruit and one bag of oranges plus the container.

This time I did call the sheriff’s office and they sent an officer to investigate. After talking about what had happened on those various occasions, I will probably have to put the stand on wheels and take it in at night. The “powers of darkness” or as the office called them, “the bad seeds,” seem to work better at night. At this point in their lives, they are not children of the light.

These incidents challenged my value system. I still want to believe in the goodness of people. The loss of money is not the problem. If someone is hungry and cannot afford to buy the citrus, I will be glad to give it to them. I want to trust people. I want to believe that most people are honorable and want to do what is right. I want to act on that honesty.

Maybe I was too naive in believing that everyone who lived in the country would respect the property of others. I am determined to continue the honor system because most people are honorable and upright. I will make modification on my fruit stand so I can take it in at night.

However, I am determined that I am not going to let someone else decide how I am going to think and live. I cannot change these thieves. But I am not going to let them change me.

I will continue to be trusting. I am determined to let go of these incidences and start over.

I forgive these people, primarily for my sake. “Forgiveness means giving up all hope of a better past.” (Landrum Bolling) I want to live in the present. I cannot change what happened. It’s gone.

I also want to get rid of any emotional baggage that comes along with being violated. I believe what Robert Muller once said, “To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.”

I do not want to live with any bitterness or resentment in my heart. I like what Tope Popoola said about forgiveness. “Bitterness and an unforgiving spirit can be likened to you taking poison and expecting that someone else would die from the effect. Forgiveness is about setting the prisoner in your heart free only to discover that all along, you had been the real prisoner.”

Thanks for letting me tell you my story.