The Willow

 “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Saturday mornings are magical.  It is the weekend.  You are the captain of your own vessel.  Adventure awaits.  You can march to the beat of your own drum - or no drum at all.  After morning feeding and milking I walked into the pasture to inspect the grass growth.  The sun has started its ascent in the east, but the June rays still linger, filtered between the limbs of the live oak trees and allow a brief pocket of time to enjoy nature before the oppressive heat and humidity drives you to seek shelter.

As I survey the landscape, my eye catches a willow tree.  Can you see it below?  There is a lesson to be taught in the Creator's creation.  The willow is almost in the center of the photograph, just to the left of the live oak.  It started out growing straight and true, but is now growing at an angle toward the west.  It's almost pointing toward the upper left corner of the photo.  That tree was a mistake on my part.  I dug it out of the garden.  It had leaves that looked like a wild peach tree.  I thought perhaps it was from our compost and planted the "peach" tree in the yard.  Well, it was no peach.  It is a willow tree.

The willow is fast growing!  Except, it is being crowded out by the live oak tree.  As the live oak tree grows upward and outward, the willow tree fights for its very existence, changing its trajectory in order to survive.  The live oak battles the struggling willow.  It seems stronger, mightier, and more majestic.  But the willow adapts.  It bends but does not break.  It keeps reaching for the light amidst the relentless pursuit of the overwhelming oak and it stubbornly resists being swallowed up by the predominant growth of its rival.

You see, I want to be like that willow.  In a culture that wishes to envelope you, crush you into conformity of popular culture and incorporate your thoughts, actions, beliefs, virtues and values into the hive mind of prevailing thought and popular opinion, I want to resist, to bend, to flee from conforming.  I want to 'zig' when the world 'zags.'  

There is a phrase for this - Contra Mundum.  Translated from Latin, it means "against the world," in defiance of all general opinion.  One must be careful, however, as this can quickly become a prideful pursuit, one that forces you to walk a tightrope, but it is a worthy endeavor.  You see, as we see age-old truth under assault by moral relativism, and a culture that increasing loves wickedness and hates godliness, one must fasten your vessel to the moorings of Biblical principles to anchor you - to guide you.  It may not be popular.  It will not be easy.  It probably won't be pretty.  As time goes on, it may be lonely.  But time doesn't matter if you have an eternal perspective.

As worldly branches encroach and threaten to bring shade and darkness to our environment, we must fight.  We must bend and keep stretching upward toward the Light.

Remember the willow and its heart and desire and perseverance.

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”   Romans 12:2

You Never Miss the Water Till the Well Runs Dry

The little patch of woods behind the barn is not our land.  The owners are absentee owners.  We never see them.  They don't mow the grass and the grass and privet gets tall.  It becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes, possums, snakes, rats, and other critters.  Oftentimes, I'll open the gate and just go walking back there in the woods.

There are a few nice live oak trees in the woods, but it is primarily old willow trees, Chinese tallow trees, Chinaberry trees, and privet.  Not too many years ago (30 or 40, perhaps?), things probably looked a lot different back there.

As I walk through, I come across a large block of bricks with 1 inch diameter rebar sticking out of it.  I'm not sure what this structure was.  It looks like something uncovered in the Amazon rainforest.  Moss and fern is reclaiming it, and the bricks are crumbling.

Then I come across this.  Once being a rice farmer, I know exactly what this is.  This is an old rice irrigation well.  There was once an engine that turned eight belts that wrapped around the pulley atop the gearhead and turned a shaft that pulled water up from beneath the ground.  The water flowed up from the pipe and into a pipe (now missing) that moved the groundwater into the concrete flume you see in the foreground. 

Crystal clear, cool water flowed through the man-made canal and into surrounding rice fields, flooding them to grow acres and acres of rice.  Those fields which once produced rice are no longer flooded by irrigation wells, but now are covered in houses populated by families.  Trees have now grown up in some of those fields and crumbling remains of irrigation wells that are now just rusting hulks of iron litter the landscape.

It is amazing to me how fast the landscape changes in just a few years.  Entire cycles have come and gone as evidenced by the willow tree in the center of the photograph below which has grown to maturity, died, and now has oyster mushrooms feeding on it.  In a short time this tree will fall and succumb to beetles, worms, and other forces of nature that will turn this tree into forest soil.

Not to get all philosophical, but life is short.

 James 4:14 King James Version (KJV)14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 

Like the Second Law of Thermodynamics says, things are moving from order to disorder, deteriorating.  I walked back from the woods thinking about this.  Kind of depressing as you think about it. 

I did, however, spot something to lift my spirits.  Check out all the white blooms decorating the vines running along the ground on the south side of the hen house.

Those are the blooms of dewberries.  They'll be ripening and we'll be back here scouring the ground for those big sweet berries that will appear.

I've marked the spot where the dewberries are and will check back each weekend until it's time to harvest.