The Chestnut Tree

I am sitting in the healing garden at Thistle Farms on a rock by the American Chestnut Tree. My bandana is soaked with sweat, but as I breath and see the tree, I  can taste LIFE!  Even though the chemistry between the chestnut tree and me are different. Our lives have shared a journey.

There was a time when billions chestnut trees produced fruit. Then through sickness and a blight it was traumatized so much that it stopped producing fruit. A few trees still existed but they weren't capable of doing the very thing God had put them on earth to do. When most people had given up on the American Chestnut tree, there were others who had not. One day through chemistry, soil, water and sun therapy, and nurturing hands the tree was able to once again thrive and produce fruit.

I remember when this tree was planted last year. I was thrilled I could watch it grow. The first month it did nothing. Second, third and fourth month it did nothing. The fifth month rolled around and I was really starting to believe that we had planted a dead tree! Watching the tree made me think about the people who cared for me and how they must have wondered, year after year, if I was ever going to start living rather than just existing.

A couple of weeks later though I walk out to the garden and to my joy and excitement I saw a bud slightly poking out from a twig. It felt good to believe in something and finally see some results.  It was a gift to see the tree spring back to life and start doing the very thing God had intended: produce fruit and share it with the world!

The beautiful supporters of the community of women at Magdalene and Thistle Farms and the small  American Chestnut taught me to never give up on the sick and broken things. We always should fight for life. No one or no thing heals on its own, it takes a community to help heal in love.

By Jennifer, 2012 Magdalene Graduate & Thistle Farmer