Thin Places

  “Doug, I was wondering if you had any more apples that needed picking….I really enjoyed doing that last weekend, it was so relaxing.”    Message on the answering machine from our friend Marilyn

     Later when Marilyn did stop out, she told me she felt so relaxed after an hour in the orchard picking apples, it was “better than going to a therapist” to which I replied..”I think we should call it “tree therapy…that will be $20.00 please “

 :-)

 Then I read this in the local paper last night:

   “Whenever I’m feeling sorry about losing Dan, I come out here, and it’s gone, just like that.  There’s something about the healing power of working in gardens.” 

      Celtic believers have long maintained  the veil between us and God is thinner in a garden.

    (I’d like to  add, in an orchard)   They called those places and experiences  ”Thin places”

  “In simple terms a ‘thin place’ is a place where the veil between this world and the next  is thin….

      I (DM) promise not to get all new-age on you, but I can’t tell you the number of times someone has commented when they’ve visited our place, they’ve experienced a profound sense of peace and tranquility, and on occasion  had their  spiritual batteries recharged.

     It happens to me    all      the      time.

     My grandpa Conley  used to say, he felt closer to God when he was fishing than going to church which was why he did the former.   At the time, I thought, yea, right, that’s just an excuse Grandpa, but now, 30 years later,  I would have to say he was probably being honest and not just making a lame excuse.

    Here are a few pictures I’ve taken in our East Orchard:

Early morning in the East Orchard

Mist in the Orchard

  Pruning

     Pruning is the art of trimming an apple tree to keep it healthy and fruitful.   I regularly find myself thinking about the spiritual implications in my own personal life. 

     If you don’t prune an apple tree (and I’ve intentionally let a couple of them go without  just to see what would happen)…the fruit is small…lots of little apples that aren’t worth that much.

     You also prune diseased or dead branches  to keep them from spreading to the rest of the tree….sort of like having certain relationships/ or activities a person might be involved in that are not good for them.

     Fruitfulness

This is not original with me, but if you’re someone who thinks about having a fruitful life…think long and hard about the fruitfulness of an apple tree.  Have you ever seen an apple tree grunting? 

Nope, me neither

They just quietly stay connected to their root system drawing nourishment from the ground, combined with  sunshine and  rain..and wha-la…in it’s season, it produces a crop of fruit.

    All  apple trees don’t produce the same type of fruit either.  Did you know there are over 2000 varieties of apple trees world-wide? 

  So why do we think our fruit need to all look the same?

    Harvest

  The biggest rush I get however, is harvest time.  I get a tiny little jolt of joy every time I remove an apple from the tree branch.   Some of you will probably think I’m crazy, but sometimes I am so overwhelmed  by the sheer volume of apples on a branch I’ve said “Thank you” to the tree as I’ve picked.   *(probably got that from watching movies where the native americans would say something over the buffalo they’ve just killed):-)

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continuing 1 hr later….

    I just came in from digging a couple of hills of new potatoes to make for breakfast for our B and B guests…noticed the 2nd crop of green beans need picking today.  This reminds me of another mystery I’ve thought about as I’ve worked outside in the garden and orchard. 

 A Seed

       One seed becomes a plant,  not over night mind you, but over the course of several weeks.  When I plant the seed, I don’t go back and dig it up to see if it’s growing.  nope,  I might water it, pull some weeds, etc. but leave the original seed alone. similar to  life…I “plant” seeds of kindness and love, then often times/ not always that seed takes root and begins to germinate, and something beautiful begins to form.

    Well, it’s about time for coffee.   Wife is probably wondering where in the heck I am. 

Johnny Appleseed and Me

     John Chapman, or Johnny Appleseed was born September 26th 1774,  the second child of Nathaniel Chapman and his wife, the former Elizabeth Symonds. of Leominster, Massachusetts. His father started young John upon a career as an Orchardist by apprenticing him to a Mr. Crawford, who had an apple orchard.

       There are so many legends and myths surrounding the guy, you might be tempted to blow him off as just a story. I (DM) got it in my head a couple of years ago to see if it were still possible to get a tree for our apple orchard that had some connection to Johnny Appleseed. I got on line and discovered Historic Trees where you can purchase direct offspring started from cuttings taken from the last known surviving tree he planted.  If you  like that sort of thing, I noticed this morning you can still get yourself  one of these young trees.

     We purchased (3) of them and planted them by our old barn. Here is a photo of one of them I took this morning.    The white tail deer are thick in our neck of the woods, so I had to put a fence around the young trees:

 

 Here is the certificate of authenticity  we got with the tree:

 

Here is a photo of the original tree from a magazine article before it died:

     There are over 7500 varieties of apple trees world wide!!!!

     This variety is called a Winter Rambo. It is a tart, red- striped apple. These flavorful heirloom apples,are great for pies and dumplings, and make good applesauce. My thought is, when this tree gets a little bigger, have an outdoor sign made w/ this certificate placed next to the tree. I love incorporating whimsy in my life, this tree, does that for me.

How about you? What sort of ways do you add whimsy to your life?

      Getting back to Johnny Appleseed for just a second. The guy was a real person. If you get on line, you can find him on the genealogy websites. If you know someone whose last name is Chapman it might be fun to see if there is a connection.

       Twice I have dressed up like Mr John Chapman (pot on my head, fake beard, bare foot) and given a presentation in our local library My wife has accompanied me dressed in period costume. I have a couple of pictures around somewhere…if I can lay my hands on them I will post them. I think there may be a little of Johnny in me.

“You can never have too many lovely,lovelies.”

      Out of Bed

Water boil

Cup of Black tea

little cream

God painted morning

finger paints with oils…

Oh  it’s a lovely lovely lovely lovely lovely day

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      We saw Drew Nelson in concert this past Sunday evening at a house concert at Scott and Michelle’s.

      He told the story of two little girls – ages seven  and four  who listened to the song “Lovely Day” on his Immigrant Son CD.   Seven year old commented afterwards, ” Boy that’s a lot of “lovely, lovelies.”

     Four  year old replies , “You can never have too many lovely, lovelies.”

            There’s  a nugget of wisdom.

     If you have a minute, click the link to Drew’s home page  and give him a listen-  Lovely day is on the play list:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=41524814

update 2/4/09 

     Just for the record-  this blog automatically feeds to a blog rating site called “blogowogo” 

      People rate each post from 0 to 5.  This particular post is getting hammered in the ratings for some reason, who knows why, maybe people think it’s too short, I wasn’t being creative enough, who knows…here’s the deal,  I just wanted to pass along a new artist I’ve come across for you to check out…so if you happen to read this post and enjoyed it, could you take a moment and scurry over to blogowogo (follow the link on this post)  and  help me out..thanks..and if you felt this post stunk..then you don’t have to go over there   appreciate it…DM