WonderBlog

Once upon a time, a little girl had an apple tree. Her parents gave her the apple tree. As long as she could remember, they told her this story:

This is your future, little Nadia. You must tend this tree and make sure it is healthy and bears fruit.

It is a young tree now, but as it gets bigger it will make fruit that you can eat. There will be so many apples that you can eat and be full, and you will have apples left over to sell and buy the other things you need.

When it gets big, you can rest in its shade. When it rains, you can stay dry under the leaves. And if the wind blows, you will be safe under your tree.

We are your parents, and we love you. We give you this tree and you must take care of it, so that you will be safe and secure for all your days.

What an important tree! This tree became Nadia’s whole life. She tended it, and learned all the rules of tree husbandry from her mother and father.

She took great care to water the tree, and to shade it when the sun was too hot. She never strayed too far from the tree. All the things she did, she did with the tree in mind. Always in her thoughts were what the tree needed to be strong and healthy.

Her parents were very proud of her. In all the surrounding areas, people called on Nadia’s mother and father to help them with their trees. Her parents were known for their knowledge of trees.

Nadia grew and her tree grew. She sat in the slender, not-quite-sufficient shade of her beloved tree, dreaming of the apples she would one day gather.

But then her parents came to her with news. A far-away land needed their help and advice. These people had heard of this family’s skill with trees and called them to help plant a new orchard.

Her parents were going to help with this new orchard. Nadia was excited to think of helping these poor far-away people grow a new orchard.

But she would have to leave her tree—her precious tree, with all of her future in its roots and branches. She had cared for this tree for so long.

Her parents urged her to come. Her tree had been tended so carefully, the roots were deep and the branches were strong. It would be fine on its own for a little while. And these people needed her.

Nadia decided it was a good thing to go, so she left with her parents to help the far-away people.

No doubt Nadia knew a lot about trees. But one season followed another and more time than she intended passed.

Her parents were very involved in this new orchard and did not want to leave. Nadia thought of her own tree, though, and decided at last that she must return.

She said goodbye to her parents, who were sad to see her go but still very full of plans for this new orchard. She made her way back to her home and to her apple tree.

She thought of her tree the whole long road back. It would probably have small hard little pippins on it by now. It could be as soon as this fall that should would reap the fruits of all her childhood labors. How sweet it would be!

The landscape seemed changed somehow. It was familiar but not quite right, after she had been gone for so long. When she finally reached her apple tree, she understood.

The tree was gone. It was nothing but a small blackened nub of a stump in the ground.
What had happened? How could this be? Her mind staggered with the shock of loss.

A nearby village had the story. During a storm, lightning had struck her tree, splitting it and burning it to the ground.

Nadia returned to the spot of land where her tree had been. This tree was to be her future. It was supposed to provide and shelter her for the rest of her life. All of her work and hopes were vanished as if they had never been.

She cast herself on the previously happy turf. She cried with despair. All of her life had been for nothing. Her tree was gone. All of it gone and she was totally alone.

After some time passed, she tried to think. Everything she had been taught was for this tree. What could she do? Her future was burned to the ground, but here she was.

She thought perhaps she would be able to go to other orchards nearby and help them. She could find a small fractioned future in this way.

But although they were happy to have her, whenever she began to work with the apple trees she would begin to shake with tears and her heart was too heavy. She had to leave the orchards.

Sad as she was, she knew that she had to do something. She began to find other sorts of plants to work with. Fields of corn and vineyards of grapes— these did not make her as sorrowful as the apples. She learned about the care of many types of plants and was valued in the surrounding farms.

Water still flowed from the rivers and sky. The sun shone to make the flowers open and then to swell the grain and grapes. Nadia learned to read the different leaves and to make sure that pollination and germination happened at the proper times, and the plants under her care prospered.

Nadia began to prosper as well. But whenever she thought of her future, the ghost shadow of a tree fell over her soul and she turned away from the thought. She never went back to the stump of her tree. It was dead and buried to her.

The seasons passed as they always do, and Nadia found herself at the borders of a vineyard after a rainy season. The grapevines were very healthy and Nadia was pleased with them. She walked further away from the plants to see the straight lines of the vines hanging on their strong supports. They looked very strong and full of hope.

Something about this hillside made Nadia look around. Why, this was the very place she had grown up! It had been so long, she had forgotten herself. But even further, she saw a strange collection of greenery to the east.

It was her very own tree, whose roots had grown much deeper than she realized. The stump she had thought completely dead had sprouted new shoots, and the shoots were thick and full of pippins.

Nadia’s surprised hands found her face. How had the harvest she had lost come back to find her? She had never thought such a thing would be. Disbelief bent her knees and she was sitting in the living shadow of the very real tree. Her eyes saw the new growth from the burned stump, and then looked over to the vineyard she had just finished tending.

She could scarcely believe it, but she was now finally going to reap what she had sown.