R is for...

Standing at the window, I gazed out at the back lawn through a misty rain.  The neighbor’s liquid amber trees were budding out, even while a few stubborn dried leaves clung to the branches.  The daffodils were nearing then end of their glory, giving up the yellow gold that had bravely appeared when spring was just a vague hope.  There, at the back fence, stood the most resilient tree in this family’s fourteen years together:  the loquat tree.

It has grown to nearly six feet, and the new growth will take it even higher.  That may not seem so spectacular, but one needs to know its humble beginnings and its near-death experiences to appreciate how amazing this tree is.

My daughter and her then-new husband had purchased the tree during the early weeks of their marriage.  They had planted it in the narrow backyard of their first house.  It was a healthy, well-established tree, and the leaves were lovely and green.  They loved it, but their black lab, Shelby, loved it even more.  That dog loved it so much, that in just a few weeks, she had chewed the tree down to within four inches of the ground.  After that, Shelby must have felt the tree was over and done with, and ignored it.

When they moved to a new house, my son-in-law dug up the tree, while my daughter scoffed, “Leave it!  That thing is dead and nothing will revive it.”  But, he re-planted it in a half-wine barrel in their new backyard, where the loquat must have felt safe enough to start growing a tentative trunk.  When it was about two feet tall, Shelby re-discovered it.  Same fate, poor tree.

Shelby went to dog heaven, and my son-in-law dug up the loquat tree.  He re-planted it on the sloping ground separating his house from the back neighbor’s house.  Nothing happened initially.  However, last year, I was looking out the window, and saw a tree that I didn’t recognize.  “Oh, that’s the loquat tree that Shelby loved so much.”  I was astounded. 

Nature is resilient.  People are resilient.  We see it all over the world.  I see it in the backyard, through a misty rain.
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