{"id":11018,"date":"2015-10-06T10:11:58","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T17:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=11018"},"modified":"2015-10-06T14:22:07","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T21:22:07","slug":"a-new-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2015\/10\/06\/a-new-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I planted a tree. An oak tree. My friend and master native plant nursery man Mike Evans had brought it this far from an acorn. As I put it in the ground it’s about six feet tall. He says, with normal care it should grow about three feet per year, and two\u00a0inches in caliper. Who knows if I’ll live long enough to see it in any kind of mature glory?<\/p>\n

\"Oak-in-Yard\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Looks pretty scrawny now, but give it a couple of decades, or centuries.<\/h6>\n

Mike says that whoever plants trees loves people. Interesting thought. The fact is, I was doing this for myself. Behind our house, on something of a green space, is a line of majestic and mature eucalyptus trees. To me, they’re the soul of the whole area. But the tree trimmers come far too often and lately, due to \u201cliability<\/em>,\u201d have taken to cutting some down altogether. I figure it’s only a matter of time before they’ll all be gone. So, in a measure of self defense, I’m planting a few of my own.<\/p>\n

The oak is the most ambitious, the most far reaching. Others have included a ficus, a silver dollar eucalyptus (still in a pot) and a couple others before that. All wonderful.<\/p>\n

But why an oak? Because of the spreading, strong, and ever-green majesty. Any drive through California’s central coast will remind of their sprawling beauty. And we saw them again (along with many other species) growing\u00a0so beautifully in Ojai on the recent birthday trip.<\/p>\n

Remember that? Or did I mention it? It was a short end-of-summer break . . . with Anne finishing up her time at the Laguna Art Festival, and me reconnoitering on what I might do next with my life.<\/p>\n

You’ll also remember (or did I mention it?) in all my reflections I didn’t come up with anything particularly new, just a desire for deepening in all things. (See “Another Year Ended,” here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

So maybe planting the oak is symbolic.<\/p>\n

\"Oaks-in-Ojai\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Shady oaks at The Blue Iguana<\/em>, our favorite get away in Ojai.<\/h6>\n

Then, this morning’s meditation brought me to this: “Whoever sows to the flesh will reap of the flesh; whoever sows to the spirit will reap of the spirit.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m not sure where sowing to the soil fits into that, but it does establish the principle. Here’s the rest: \u201cLet us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Then:\u00a0\u201cAs we have opportunity, let us do good to all people . . . \u201d<\/em> *<\/p>\n

And there we go, back to Mike’s statement, \u201cWhoever plants a tree loves people.\u201d<\/p>\n

God bless us all . . . and prosper what we sow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

_________<\/p>\n

* excerpts from New Testament, Galatians 6:8-10<\/em><\/p>\n

BTW, mine is a “Coast Live Oak” (Quereus agrifolia<\/em>) purchased at the soulful\u00a0Tree of Life Nursery<\/em><\/a>, of which friend Mike is proprietor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seems the right thing to do, particularly as we get older, to invest in sowing that will last.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11018"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11049,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11018\/revisions\/11049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}