From the withered tree, a flower blooms.
I have apple trees, but there is one I’m rather fond of
because it’s a beautiful and the oldest of the apple trees. It used to put out
a huge crop of apples. In the spring it would be drenched in the most gorgeous
flowers—creamy white with a delicate tone of pink toward the center.
This tree and me go back a bit of time. The both of us have
seen good and bad years been prolific in the creative process—she her flowers
and beautiful sweet fruit and me with
my ranch and writing.
In 2008 she didn’t
produce quite as many flowers or fruit. We figured she needed a bit of TLC. We
pruned and powdered. In 2009, she was on her way to put on quite a show. Lots
of flowers and they did my heart good to see them. The last week of March we
had a horrible ice storm. It encased all the trees in a glittering coating of
thick ice. Her flowers froze and those still budding and ready to bloom turned
brown and died. Poor thing. She did go on and put out a bumper crop of
leaves—considering the hard freeze, I thought she would die. Nah, she’s tough.
Many of our trees were struggling to put on leaves that year. In 2010, no flowers and there was a tornado.
I had knee surgery. Copious repairs had to be made to our property that year.
It was also the year I really started getting sick. August onward was not good
for me. Last year neither of us was creative or productive. I was beginning to think we were finished.
As I said, we’ve been through a lot, this apple tree and I.
Today, while I was working in the yard, I happen to glance
over at the tree and to my surprise, she had quite a few flowers opening. I had
to walk over and look. I stood under the tree and contemplated how much had
happened in the past couple or years. To the both of us.
We've might have taken a hard hit but I guess you can’t count us out after all.
What have you had to overcome to be productive?
