Monday, March 26, 2012

MONDAY MUSINGS: Blooming Again




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.

Looks like this year is going to be productive year for both of us. Might not be the most productive year, but we’re going to be all right. 



What have you had to overcome to be productive?