05.25.09
Potential Fruit
This picture may not look like much, but it is one branch of my apple tree. If you look closely at where the blossoms used to be, you can see several swelling stems, which is the sign that these blossoms have indeed set, and if all goes well, will produce lovely fruit. Maybe.
Which, of course, got me thinking. Have you ever been the kind of person who has the potential to bear lots of fruit? Do you have loads of talent, lots of potential, the confidence you need to get to fruition? I’ve got to be honest, sometimes I feel a lot like this branch. Out of this branch of set pre-fruit, maybe one or two will actually make it. And if we get a heck of a hail storm, not one of them has a chance. It’s not fruit until it’s fruit. Now, it’s just the potential to be fruit.
So back to me. I get this far a lot. I’ve got potential. And it looks like I’m going to get a lot of fruit out of my branch. But then the storms come. And it’s all I can take to hang on, to not give up. I’ll even tell myself that piece of hail is going to nail me. Or I get crowded out by a louder fruit, or a pushier fruit, or just a mean one. And even if I do make it, I’m smaller, I’m less, as I try to share the same space with the big fruit. I’ve got to tell you, it is rough business trying to be fruitful.
A lot of times I get to this point, where it looks like all I need to do is get to the finish line, and I stop looking for the difficulties. I think things should work out from here. I’ve done the hard part, set the thing in motion, now it should go well. But this is the time of attack. And the better I get at figuring that out, the more prepared I will be at protecting that little baby of goodness until the time comes to call it what it is, not what it could be.
I’ll keep track of that branch, and let you know who’s hanging on.
Blossoms lead to fruit
The blog is back, because the plants are back. And I can’t resist the scent of the blossoms on the air, or the dance of the tulip petals in the brisk early breezes. This is a great time of year in the yard because the fruit trees are just starting to bloom. I have a beautiful plum tree, two apple trees, two pear trees, and two cherry trees. The plum is just finishing her blooming time, and the pears are in full stride, enticing bees to the table. The apples are just ready to burst forth. And I stare at the cherry branches every day, looking for signs of their blossoms.
Of course there can’t be movement outside without a lesson to be learned. Today I was thinking about blossoms and fruit. The Bible talks about how “you will know them by their fruit,” a reference to Christians being known by the way they live their lives. It’s pretty easy to understand from anyone’s point of view, but as a fruit grower, I think there are some lessons left behind to those not staring at branches all day. So here are my thoughts:
Fruit never just appears on a tree. It is visible and delicious and a wonderful last step in a very intricate process. The process starts really right after last year’s season. After I picked apples last year, that tree started building up energy for this season. It began feeding and storing and preparing, even as it went to bed for the winter. Many a grower knows you have to fertilize in the fall or you won’t get many fruits the next year. that’s when the energy to fruit is collected. In the invisible time, when no one is looking, that tree is preparing, working, storing, growing.
Then, at just the right time (although I can never figure out how it knows when), the tree blooms. And they all bloom on time. The plum always blooms first, then the Bartlett pear, then the Braeburn apple. Each tree sends out the potential with open blossoms and easy pollen. I love to see the blossoms open and stretch out their petals to allow the bees in. They are open to possibility, and allow their potential to roam free. The opening, the pollenating, it’s all out of that blossom’s hands. All it does is receive and give.
Here comes the tricky time. This is the time when we see if any fruit has been set. It may have looked like all of the blossoms were set, all of the pollen was good. Every blossom should become a little fruit. But, as in life, not everything that looks like fruit is fruit. Some blossoms didn’t get enough pollen. Some didn’t get set in time. The rain comes, the wind comes, the hail comes, and some sets fall off the tree, unable to hold onto their progress. It’s hard to get fruit. There’s a lot of things pushing back against the tree. Fruit is difficult business.
Even those blossoms that do set fruit have an entire growing season to contend with. Some fruit doesn’t make it to maturity. Some rots and drops off. Some gets hit with more hail or wind. Some gets eaten from the inside by pests. Some fruits look ready to mature, but for some unknown reason they just give up, or stay small.
Then, at the right time, a well-fed tree, with the proper nutrients and time and opportunity, will bear a beautiful crop of delicious fruit. And picking time is joyous. Everything you’ve hoped for, waited for, watched for, comes happily true as juicy goodness drips from your chin. And you enjoy that which you cannot make happen.
In my life, I like to think of the 5th chapter of Galatians in terms of this. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace — the fertilizer of God’s work in us; patience, kindness, goodness — the open blossoms of our heart; faithfulness, gentleness, self-control — the fruit of who we are to others as we let God work in us, feed us with His power in our lives. Then those around us enjoy the sweetness of who God is. And maybe our pollen will set some new fruit in them.
