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blogging101, Creative Writing, Family, Johnny Appleseed, Journaling, Journey 2016, Memories & Reflections, Quotes, Uncategorized, Writing 101
I love trees. Other than the sea shore, there’s no place I feel more at home than in a forest. I love the way each different kind of tree has its own voice depending on leaf size, proximity to each other on the branch, and density of the branches. Maple trees are my favorites. In fact, we have a Maple Ent* that stands guard outside our house day after day, week after week, year after year. His name is General Mapleon.
General Mapleon is quite handsome. He reminds me a lot of Sergeant Schultz from Hogan’s Heroes! He’s one of those lovable Ents that could easily gather you up in his leafy boughs and hug the stuffins out of ya (if you were a kid who liked to climb!). In fact, while I was sitting outside communing with the General a couple days ago, I wrote a tanka for him, Maple.
Trees have always been a big part of my life. When I was teaching kindergarten, one of my favorite times of year was September. There were so many things to do with the kids in the fall. During the last week of the month we’d learn about and celebrate the birthday of one of America’s most interesting folks, Johnny Appleseed! John Chapman was born September 26, 1774. He was an apple-lovin’ conservationist who traveled all over Pennsylvania, Ontario, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and West Virginia scattering apple seeds everywhere he went. September 26th is National Johnny Appleseed Day (though some calendars list it as March 11, possibly for planting?).
We did something different every day that week. We learned about and colored pictures of Johnny. We watched Disney’s The Legend of Johnny Appleseed. We made caramel apples (with the help of some great parents). But my favorite thing was visiting an apple orchard which was within walking distance of the school.
The folks who owned the orchard grew Honeycrisp apples that were harvested from mid-September to early October, and they were always thrilled to have the kids come for a visit. It was a treat for the kindergarteners to see the homemade apple sorter the orchard owner had invented to separate the small from the large apples. And, of course, they always got to pick an apple to take home.
Stay with me! I DO have a point here! .😀
Sitting there under the General Thursday stirred up all those wonderful memories, so it seemed rather serendipitous that I ran across a quote about a trees this morning in my Daily Calm book. The quote gave me pause for thought.
Someone is sitting in the shade today
because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
— Warren Buffett
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Now that’s very true on the surface. After all, there I was sitting under Mapleon whom we planted 30 years ago! But the more I thought about the quote, the more I realized there was maybe a deeper meaning than Buffett intended. It made me wonder what OTHER kinds of “trees” I may have “planted” in the past that are providing “shade” for someone now? What other “kindnesses” I’ve “sown” that have made life just a little easier for folks around me or perhaps around the world?
It was just a thought that flashed through my mind as I sat there, and I got caught up with the fancy that everyone of us has opportunities to be a “Johnny Appleseed” every day. Opportunities to make life a bit more tolerable for others in this world. We never know what “kindesses sown today” might provide some much needed “shade” for others up the road. English novelist, poet, and journalist Mary Ann Evans (better known as George Eliot) once said:
What do we live for it not to make life less difficult for each other?
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It made me wonder how well I’m doing at planting “seeds of kindness.” How about you? Ever fancied yourself as the Johnny Appleseed type? Something to think about…
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Picture Credits:
Johnny Appleseed — learni.st
Honeycrisp Apples — www.starkbros.com
Girl on Road — nomadicalsabbatical.com
*Ent: A fictional large talking tree from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings
Impromptu Promptlings 
Wow! More people need to read this. It made me feel all fuzzy inside and ready to go out into the world and spread seeds of kindness. This has come at a fantastic time, for I was recently visiting Savannah, Georgia a hub of writers (Flannery O’Connor was the most notable), artists, painters, musicians, and what I thought, some good ole Southern kindness. I felt the Southern kindness that would meet me in the bunches was not there but maybe that was just me. Not to say this dampened my trip, no not at all. But if more people read this, I think the world would be better off.
Thank you.
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You know, Georgia is one of the few states I’ve not been to. I always wondered what the wind in the trees would sound like where the moss is hanging from them. If their voices would be really different. Just the idea of “Savannah” makes me think of roaring lions and their prides. Perhaps being in groups was like wandering around in the desert in a savannah with some over-protective lions! One-on-one may be more fruitful? 😀
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That was, for the most part, what I discovered. Walking through the streets it seemed more polite to keep one’s head down and avoid eye contact. One-on-one however, one felt the urge to speak and spread kindness. You should check out Savannah! Lots of history there, good restaurants, and cool places to just look at.
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Well I hope your next experience there is different. Gee, they don’t sound very hospitable?
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Oh, you’d love this beautiful land on which Serenity sits. We’ve got more maples than anything else! Two stand guard in the front yard, and there are perhaps a dozen maples that surround our back yard, with a few oaks, and a couple of other trees I can’t identify. Of course, there’s the Fim Tree, I planted myself twenty six years ago, a gorgeous Eastern Pine.
I’ve always thought trees were the most evolved Beings in this world.
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And of course YOUR tree is one of a kind there! 😉 ❤
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Does the Ent, General Mapleon, ever speak to you? What rustlings and whisperings do you hear, I wonder …. 🙂
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Yes. He’s constantly telling me I am stuck between the earth and the sky. He knows I don’t want to be tied to the ground, but he also knows I’m afraid to fly. So I take shelter and sit in his bows. He’s content to let me rest in his arms. 🙂
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Looks like a beautiful place to rest and gather yourself ready for whatever the next step will be 🙂
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Yeah, if I don’t nod off to sleep and fall out and break my bloomin’ neck! LOL
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I try my best – but I sometimes think I fall well short.
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Geez, Opher. Don’t we all? The important thing is sometimes we succeed. 😉
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