Frances and Edward Mayes are two lucky people who found a villa in Tuscany with good olive trees.
“I have to consider that the state of being happy consists of something very simple: your hand parts silver leaves to reach a clump of shiny black olives, your thumb and index finger pull an olive and snap it off the branch, letting it fall just as fast as Galileo said it would.”
There’s a state of contentment that comes only from physical activity. Perhaps you find it in gardening. In this sentence, instead of the olives simply falling Mayes’ refers to the Italian astronomer, giving richer meaning to the simple act of picking olives. We’re doing some planting this weekend which won’t result in fresh olive oil to douse on bruschette but will bring happiness just the same.