Category Archives: flourishing tree

Nature’s pragmatic lessons

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Last Thursday, I came home from my afternoon walk with my dog to find two rabbits hanging out in the yard. Because there’s a bit of Mr. McGregor in my husband and me, and because we don’t want rabbits setting up camp in our yard or eating everything in our garden, I let our dog try to chase them away (with me still holding her by the leash). One bounded away, but the other just ran in circles around a newly-dug rabbit nest. Deciding the rabbit might be a new mother, I took the dog inside and then stood at the front door to watch.

That’s when I saw it – a movement in the grass near the front walk, a dark spot rustling the grass. I feared it might be a snake at first and walked carefully toward the area. Instead of a snake, here’s what I found: Continue reading →

Branching out

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In his preface to The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis writes of life – and its decisions – being like a tree:

We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork you must make a decision. Even on the biological level life is not like a river but a tree. It does not move towards unity but away from it and the creatures grow further apart as they increase in perfection. Good, as it ripens, becomes continually more different not only from evil but from other good. (p. viii) Continue reading →

Celebrating trees’ gift of music

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According to the Arbor Day Foundation, National Arbor Day is observed the last Friday in April, but it turns out a lot of states celebrate earlier or later, depending on when the season dictates the best time to plant trees. I just learned, for instance, that my state celebrates the first Friday after March 15 (seems random to me). If you’re in a cooler climate, like North Dakota, you can celebrate with your state this upcoming Friday. Here’s a handy map that lets you see exactly when your state observes this day of tree planting.

Not realizing I had already missed my state’s Arbor Day, I spent most of this past Friday celebrating National Arbor Day by sitting outside enjoying music that wouldn’t be possible without trees.

Every year (or as often as possible), my husband and I go to MerleFest, a four-day music festival in the North Carolina mountains that has some of the best bluegrass, rockabilly, blues, country, folk, jazz music and much more. I haven’t traveled around the country going to different music festivals, but I simply can’t imagine one that’s much better than this for the caliber of music you’ll hear. The festival closed out with an almost two-hour set from Alison Krauss and Union Station. Need I say more about the quality and talent the festival organizers bring in? Continue reading →

How friendships are like a garden. Or why I hate Facebook.

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If I had subtitles for my posts, the subtitle for this one would be: “Or why I hate Facebook.” Instead, I’ve put it in the title, too, because I don’t want you to miss it.

I know Facebook and other social media outlets give friends a way to stay in touch and see pictures of each others’ children and keep updated on what’s going on in our busy lives, but it also strikes me that Facebook has created distances between friends, too.

Under the best circumstances, Facebook feels like a junk-food approach to maintaining friendships, when what we really need to strengthen our connections with each other is real time together, talking, hugging, laughing and even crying with each other. Continue reading →

The riotous garden

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“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” – Margaret Atwood

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He stood next to me looking out at our garden and said, “I want a riotous garden – like this.” He pointed specifically to the riot of irises and butterfly bush all grown over one another, and I see the dividing of bulbs that will soon come.

One view of a garden in our front yard

My husband and I built this raised garden when we were still newlyweds, adding stone and dirt and mulch and plants around an old oak tree that needed more dirt for its roots to thrive.

Some areas have grown in better than others. Beginner’s luck, I think, as I happen to get some plants in exactly the right place for them to grow riotously. Like the irises, mostly from my mother’s garden – purples, whites, yellows and sherbet-y combinations – that have taken off this year and created a bounty of blooms.  Continue reading →