My Own Lemon Tree

I wrote this post back in August when I hacked up the lemon tree.

Tuesday before last, when I came home from volunteering at Greenhouse Park, I cut some diseased branches off the lemon tree in the backyard. Ants filled most of these dead branches and I guess they were harvesting some kind of food (aphids) in there (reminds me of the Matrix movie where the machines were harvesting humans like batteries).

Did you know why pruning a plant is good for it? When branches are cut from any plant, the plant will aggressively put down more roots and deeper. This helps the plant to flourish in health and beauty.

When some neighbor or power monger “cuts” me, I certainly feel pain by it. But I can then put down deeper roots to drink Living Water. I can remember to breathe and bask in the sunshine. New fruit grows better than before and any neighbors whether cutters or healers, may receive blessing from me.

Often times the life I experience and the religion I already practice is described best after reading Christian Scripture. When I wrote the above, I was recalling bits from 1 Thessalonians and James about suffering, the Gospel of John about living water, and Galatians 6 about the fruit of the Spirit. I’m pretty sure the Hebrew or Greek words for “spirit” are the same for “breath”.

By the way, it's not really my lemon tree, but as renters I think we're sort of in charge of it.