Outside my office stands a tree that was grafted from one that Johnny Appleseed planted. The plaque at the base says so. This fall there have been apples swaying from every branch. At first I just looked longingly at them. Not being a tree climber myself I felt incapable of coaxing them down. But I sure looked at them. 

One day  a woman showed up with a long pole, that had a wire cage at the top. With it she teased down a basket full of red apples and set it in the lounge for people to enjoy. I had one. I had another. But the ones on the tree kept calling, just out of reach. 

Sometimes John would be talking, and my eyes would wander out the window to those trees. How could I get them? My son is six feet tall. Maybe he could shimmy up the trunk. 

It is not as if I can't buy apples at the store. Galas, winesaps, honeycrisps, are all there for the choosing. But there was something about those trees singing outside my window that would not be shushed. 

One day a friend came to our office to chat. As he talked my mind percolated. He is tall. He is also a painter. The kind who can reach the tippy tops of houses. The words came blurting out. 

"Do you know how I could get those apples?"

"I happen to have an apple picker and a ladder leaning against my house right now. I will bring them to you."

He kept his promise and a few minutes later I was on the steps of a ladder with my arms as high above my head as I could stretch them. One by one I tickled fruit off their branches, who were only too happy to be relieved of the burden. Forty apples. That felt like a good number. 

I went home and made apple crisp to bring to the office the next day. All it took was brown sugar, cinnamon, rice flour and butter. The apples did all the work, or rather the tree. Or maybe it was Johnny. 

One of the things I love to do in small groups is to invite people to harvest the sweetness growing in their own backyards. It is usually just out of reach. The handfuls of kindness that so easily go unnoticed. Mentally I hand them a long pole and invite them to pick one. Or two. 

Then everyone in the room can taste the sweetness.