My mother used to buy eggs from him and would occasionally have to leave an I.O.U note in the box, if she didn't have the right change. She'd fix him up next time around, with a note of good cheer and the remaining payment. With the right money in hand though, I purchased two pumpkins. 

Local purchases keep the farmer in business, supporting someone who still believes in the general goodness of people and their honesty. His house is miles off into the paddock. He is not sitting, watching every purchase and noting number plates. He simply drives his produce to the fence and lets honesty do his business for him. 

As I was driving back from there, I thought about the people who go and loot shops and houses after natural disasters and wonder how we can all be of the same species. But I guess there will always be personalities that keep things balanced, even if not in the best ways. 

So much is influenced by where we grow up, where we choose to live as adults, and by the people around us. Sitting on the verandah now, I think of other writers the world over, and wonder how much their environments affect what they write about, and the attitudes they bring to their own work as a result. 

And I count my blessings for the environment I live in, and for other places before here. Such a scene of beauty leaves me in constant gratitude, helping me to remain positive, and to keep faith in humankind. It is not blind faith though. I have walked a lot of roads in life to be street-wise, enough to know what goes on out there. It's a tough world at times, driven insanely by fear and power (which is fear anyway). 

But it is also a beautiful world. And I continue to believe that every individual can make a positive difference, gradually changing the environments in which we live into supportive communities. It all starts with one person and continues to change from there, one person at a time, like with a pumpkin farmer who still believes in old-fashioned values of trust and honesty and lives accordingly. 

While over in this rural region, I was reminded in other ways too just how much one's environment affects how a person turns out. Occasional music shows for young children are a part of my current work. Naturally, performing shows to children under five years old brings a variety of pleasures. And while there are always children who need more attention than others, generally they are all easy to please and are delightful audiences, keen to participate in the shows with actions and singing, as guided or freely.

The children I performed to most recently though, were the most delightful group of children I have ever worked with. Their manners, participation, attention-spans, and the speed in which they learned the new songs was distinctly different to any groups I had worked with before. 

Having been raised in the country myself, I couldn't help but wonder if it was because they are country children, living simpler lives than their coastal or city counterparts, and having been raised where life is friendlier and not so guarded. I don't claim to know the exact answer. But it did leave me wondering, reminding me again of the power our surrounding environment can have on us. The difference in this group of little people was astounding. 

Regardless of which sort of environment we live in though, it is still our own choice to be a good person, to maintain old fashioned, simple values, and to contribute to the environment in which we live, as it contributes to our lives too. 

And if that environment is one that is not healthy for you, for the truest sense of who you are, we live in a society of choice. And it is possible to move on to somewhere more suitable, as I did when I returned to country life a couple of years ago. 

After the days away, with the influence of the pumpkin farmer and the children's show, I drove back over to the coastal farm, thinking about the difference between rural life on the coast and rural life inland. I thought too about the farmer's trust in humankind.

This left me smiling, valuing the old ways, the simple ways, the honest ways. It left me with gratitude for the goodness that crosses my path in life. 

May your own environment be a healthy one for you. May you know simplicity. And may the farmer's pumpkin supply continue to be bountiful!