Apple Thoughts

We have a 50+ year-old apple tree in our backyard that we are pretty excited about. When we got our house 3 years ago, it was HUGE and produced tons and tons of apples without us having to do anything to it. Perfect. 

However, as we've been living here longer and learning about how to take care of our fruit trees, we realized that this apple tree, though it gave tons of apples, needed care. The apples had worms and spots. The lower (reachable) ones were completely shaded by the higher (even with huge ladders, unreachable) ones, making our harvested apples small and kind of gimpy. The tree itself had so many branches that they were chocking each other out and shading each other so there was a ton of moss... 

So last winter we trimmed out tree. And by trimmed, I mean my husband and his chainsaw climbed up a 40-foot tree, and came back down a 25-foot tree. We thinned out branches and rubbed off moss. We changed the entire shape of it, and then stood back and prayed we hadn't killed it. 

Then, this summer brought fruit. Beautiful fruit. The apples have almost no worms and are nearly twice the size they used to be. Even their color is more vibrant. 

The other day I was sitting, nursing my baby and watching my kids play, and looking at my tree. And I realized that I'm a lot like it. Christ says you can judge something by it's fruits - and my life definitely has fruit - I'm doing my normal Catholic thing. Going to Mass on Sundays, and even helping out when I can. I don't rob banks, and haven't pushed over an old person in YEARS. But I don't prune. I don't get to the confessional. And I need to. I was made for it. We all are. 

My fruit can be better. My love can be better if I take the proper care. I'm sure if I started going to confession regularly (once a month) my life wouldn't change drastically. I wouldn't come come home and announce the whole family's moving to a third world country to do mission work; just like my apple tree will never become a pineapple no matter how much it's trimmed. But I'll be a better wife. A better mom and friend. My love will become sweeter and more vibrant. Like my apples.

The power of touch

One of my husband's best friends was admitted to the hospital yesterday with a brain bleed. He is 34 years old and there was little to no idea that he had such high blood pressure that could cause the bleeding. His wife rushed him the the emergency room when he woke up early yesterday morning. He and his wife have only been married for 2 and a half weeks, the actually got married on our first anniversary. We spent yesterday in the hospital surrounded by people who were there to support their friend and await his recovery. Currently he's in a drug induced coma and the doctor's tell us it will be a waiting game to see if he'll recover and if so, what the extent of the damage will be. Events like this of course make everyone stop and realize how precious life is. We don't know how long we're here on earth or when we'll have to say goodbye to someone we love. It always reminds people to say "I love you" to those certain people so that you're sure they know how you feel. I realized all of this yesterday but I had a really unique experience at one point in the day. My husband's friend's wife went back to see him in ICU and she asked if I wanted to go with her. Many people had been back to see him, but I had not. As part of the healing process the doctor's have placed him in a drug induced coma and put him on a ventilator so that his body doesn't have to do a lot of work and instead can rest and hopefully the bleeding will clot and then stop. They want his blood pressure to be 115-122 over 60 - just a normal pressure. His wife and I were watching the blood pressure machine to see how he was doing. It was fluctuating between 120-123. Then she went to touch him and it slowed down. It stayed between about 117-119. He needed to his wife. He needed to feel her calming touch. She was there with him, he could relax. I know the Lord is working on him and I know of course the power of the Lord is infinitely greater than ours, but I was also reminded yesterday that a simple touch of the hand can sooth the heart. His parent's are very faithful and hoping for a miracle. At the end of the day his mother told us all - for those of you that believe in God, you're expecting a miracle, and for those of you that don't your about to see one. What a wonderful woman of God, testifying to His greatness even in the midst of tragedy. We'll continue to pray for him and his family, most especially for his new wife. It really brings the vows "in sickness and in health" to life.