Where Trees Convene

I wasn’t going to post about apple trees today but that’s who I woke up thinking about.

Sometimes it’s hard to put yourself out into the world. You gear up, gather your courage, put yourself out there…and then, silence. In a world where attention is a commodity, it’s hard not to judge yourself by the volume of the response. It’s easy for me to create stories of doubt from this perceived lack of interest and then sprinkle it over all aspects of myself like I’m a dish that needs seasoning.

Today, the challenge of forging ahead through the silence is coming up in more than one part of my life, so I’ve come back to an old friend of mine—the apple tree—to remind me why and how I do what I do. I find a lot of wisdom in trees and plants that I hope to share here over time.  I’m not going to fuss over this poem—rewriting till it’s twenty steps closer to perfect. I wrote it this morning and it is a product of me right at this moment and that is good enough to put forth.  

Also, funnily enough, as I was writing this, I had a friend reach out about this newborn blog with some kind words. Which reminds me about patience. There might be another stanza for this poem at some point about the seeds that germinate in the quiet underground. 

The photos were taken this morning of my crab apple tree which makes the most darling little fruits, smaller than a cherry. You can see some of last year’s fruit, uneaten, alongside the new buds.