This Healing Orchard.......

Nine months or so after we moved to the home we live in now, there was a knock at the door...

"I used to live here", the woman explained.  

She was a women about my age at the time.  She seemed unintrusive and harmless...

"My Mom is buried here under one of your trees".....

O.K., so that's not something that happens to you everyday, huh??? 

As my mind raced, I suddenly remembered we were considered "small farmers" in my area.  Although small, we had an orchard filled with about 126ish trees, give or take....

She explained that her Mom was battling breast cancer while they lived here and that she loved this house and the orchard.

"I'm so sorry about your Mom" I said.

Seemingly a bit put off, she questioned, 

"Oh...Why?"

"Well, because she didn't find healing here" I shared.

"Oh, but she did!!" 

She seemed so at peace as she proclaimed those words.  

I have thought about those few moments in time so often in the last ten years I've lived here.  Everytime I work in the orchard or just take a walk though the stone pathway that my husband and I laid throughout it,  her words echo in my heart.

I find this place so incredibly peaceful, especially now, as we so painstakingly trying to hang onto it.

Today, as I watered and milled about, I was reminded again how generous this orchard has been to those that have lived here.  

When we purchased this home the realtor kept "selling" us the same line.  He redundantly kept remarking that this was an "entertainers" home.  That this house "liked parties".

Hmmmmm.....

At the time, a Mom of three small children, I immediately pictured people with a six pack in their hands knocking on our door months later asking, "Where's the party?"...

That never happened, but you can imagine my concern.

Since we have lived here we have had 2 weddings, a baby shower, a bridal shower, many birthday gatherings, graduation parties, first communion and confirmation celebrations.

This house doesn't "love parties" it LOVES PEOPLE.  I have explained this to many guests how this house just invites you in hoping you will feel warm and welcome in its dwellings.

If we ever leave here.....its that generosity this house has given us, or family and friends, that I will be forever grateful for.  I will treasure the solitude and healing this house has enveloped us with.

The woman at the door asked if she could walk through the orchard and find the tree her Mom's ashes were buried under.

"Of course" I said...."Take your time".....

I often wonder what tree her Mom requested to be buried under.  What tree brought her so much comfort in those final days during a long, fatal battle with illness, when it became time to prepare for end of it.

I wonder why she chose the tree she did.  

I wanted to give the woman at my door the space and privacy to visit that tree privately, so I have no idea which one it is.

But I think of her often, and as I care for these trees and try to be a good steward while I tend to them, I can't help but think of her, 

close my eyes 

and be thankful....