Thursday, April 7, 2011

So Much is in the Bud


Like Treena’s picture of the Balance Rock that has captured her Lenten imagination… a reading by John Leax has captured mine. 

John lives on a small farm in New York State and teaches writing at Houghton College. There is never enough time to do all the work on the farm, and the old orchard, planted long ago by someone on a hillside, is neglected and overgrown. One day John was driving through the large, carefully groomed orchards of central Ontario, and found himself vaguely depressed by the endless rows of well-ordered trees. He reflected on his feeling, and on the sense of being at home in his own little, poorly tended orchard. “Why was that?” he wondered. It had to do, he finally concluded, with the way a small orchard fits into the scheme of creation, with many people caring for their tiny plots of ground. The huge orchards of the conglomerates, on the other hand, were sad reminders of the commercialization of the land.

"Perhaps this is why," he wrote "though I feel my failure to bring the old orchard to fruitfulness, I feel no real guilt, why in fact I feel a sort of pleasure in watching it turn wild and useless. When I walk in it, it tells me that one's caring comes to an end. It tells me that life is lived within the boundaries of extremes, of wildness and domestication. It tells me that my order is not the only order. And in its message I feel comfort."



"We have only begun 
to imagine the fullness of life.
  How could we tire of hope? 
         So much is in the bud."
~ Denise Levertov




 photo taken March, 2007

1 comment:

  1. Thank you Sally - there is so much truth in this. Blessings on the letting go in it - may you find great comfort.

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