Moss & Mistletoe

Know this, life stretches forever in both directions for all of us. There are places here where the paths of before, now, and after meet. These are special places where rare and wonderful things happen.

Friday morning the bank manager made a call to a wealthy landholder in the county. "Albert, Hi, it is Frank Osborne from the First State Bank. A little bird said you might be interested in some property out on the old highway if any come available." " I might be," Albert replied, " If I can pick it up at the right price." Frank kicked back in his office chair and said, " Looks like we are about to foreclose on the nursery land and buildings. It will come available in about two weeks and I can offer it to you for well under market value." " Why doesn't the woman that runs it just sell it herself?" questioned Albert. "She has run out of time. I'll let you know more later," answered Frank as he hung up the phone. He glanced up and saw Samantha West, the woman who he planned to relieve of her property, heading for his office.

The Bank manager sitting across the desk from Samantha said," After reviewing your mortgage file and considering all the late pays and deferrals. We have decided that we will need $10,000.00 from you in two weeks to bring the account up to date. If you cannot meet these terms, then we will have to foreclose on your property and business assets. Look, I know how hard you have been struggling the last few years to keep this thing afloat. It might be best for you to relinquish it now and cut your losses." Samantha had that sick feeling like your heart has dropped into your stomach. She just sat there staring at him, not knowing what to say. He slid a piece of paper over to her and asked her to sign it. She looked down at it and it all just looked a blur and she realized she was about to cry. She snapped out of it long enough to say, "OK," and sign the sheet. She told him she understood the situation and the terms of the agreement. They stood up and shook hands. She headed outside through the glass doors into the bright sunlight. She looked at all the people coming and going. She realized that, although we were all on the same planet, we were all living in our separate worlds.

She was about to lose her business, Samantha’s Nursery and Garden Center. She had grown up in the suburbs of a big city. Her grandparents had lived in the country some hundred miles north. They grew vegetable gardens. She loved to dig in the dirt and watch things grow. She remembered even as a small child thinking just how miraculous growth was and how awesome that the Earth could yield so much life. The dream she had spent the last fifteen years working and sweating for was dying. The dream that she had scraped and borrowed to keep afloat. She had forgone marriage and children. How was she to know that the plant that made pottery for sixty years was going to close? A business that had provided a living for generations of families. When it closed, it was like a domino effect for other businesses. The people moved away for other work. So did her customer base. How was she going to tell the couple that worked with her? They would have to find other work. She was on the verge of mentally giving up when she got the urge to visit a place. Her great-grandparents had homesteaded in East Texas after the Civil War. The land had been split and passed down for generations. She had sold her piece long ago and sunk those funds into the nursery. Her brother, Michael, still owned a small piece that was the family camp. The camp was buried deep in the woods bordering a wide creek. It was basic, with no electricity or plumbing. The old outhouse, which she always dreaded using because of the spiders, had collapsed years ago. So now you just squatted in the woods, hoping the mosquitoes did not bite you on the butt. She and her brother had spent their summers at the camp. They ran barefoot, fishing, swimming, and eating barbecue off the grill. Eating watermelons, they had cooled in the creek. There was an old rusty metal sign hanging crooked on a tree by the porch that read, "Shaky Shanty" and that is what everyone called it.

Her brother had mortgaged the place to loan her money for her business. She called him just to tell him she was planning on visiting Shaky Shanty on Sunday when the nursery was closed. She did not mention her financial predicament. She said she was feeling nostalgic and wanted out of the city for a day. He said come by and get the key to the gate.

Sunday morning came and she quickly showered and dressed before jumping into her truck and headed out of town. It was a pleasant October day with the sun shining. She tried to just block out all her problems by singing with the radio. When she turned off the paved roads onto the dirt road to the camp, she noticed a big cell tower in a pasture. It just looked so wrong. So intrusive among all the nature. She pulled up to park outside the wire-fenced yard. There was no use going inside, it was in awful shape with rotting floors. She walked to the wide white sandy path that led through the woods to a big sandbar by the creek. The path was maybe forty feet long or so and about fifteen feet wide.

It is so shady there with all kinds of trees. She heard birds chirping and squirrels jumping. The woods arch high over the path like a cathedral in the woods. She breathed in the wonderful fresh clean air with just a hint of magnolia. Spanish moss hung down loosely from the trees. She reached up and grabbed a hand full that was hanging low and felt its crunch in her hand. Fingers of dappled sunshine through the trees softly touched her. She sat down at the base of a big tree to just listen and enjoy the natural beauty of it all.

Her cell phone rang, waking her from her dream state. "Hello", she answered. "Hello, this Isaiah Bern, I am calling for Samantha West?" he said questioningly. "Yes, this is, Samantha" she replied. "Samantha, do you run a nursery outside of Houston?" he asked. "I do. We are closed on Sundays. How can I help you, Mr. Bern?" she inquired. “Sorry to catch you on your one day off, but I am looking for a supplier for Spanish moss. I have a big order to fill for a nationwide retailer. My previous supplier has stopped carrying it, and I would prefer to get it from a Texas company rather than go out of state. Your name and numbers were the only ones not scratched out in my little black book I keep of suppliers. This would be a wholesale deal in bulk, as my company would do the packaging of the product for retail sales." he stated. She looked down at her hand, still holding the crunchy moss. She answered him, "Why, yes, Mr.Bern - " "Please, call me Isaiah." he interrupted. " Yes, yes I will, thank you and you please call me Samantha," she replied. She continued, " I just happened to have a very fresh supply ready to be gathered and shipped. Would you like to set up a meeting to iron out the details?" " That would be wonderful. Would it be OK with you if we met at your nursery in the morning" he asked? " Great, it will have to be early by 8 am" she replied. " Oh, that is fine. Early is better for me. Let me check the address with you to be sure" as he read it off. "That is correct, Isaiah. I look forward to our meeting!" she answered. "See you there, thank you, and goodbye. " he ended.

She danced in the forest, thanking it and her ancestors for being there when she needed them. Then something caught her eye. Inside the fence, to the yard of Shaky Shanty, she saw a very ethereal-looking boy. He was skinny and had red hair. Then it hit her, it was her father as a child. He was wearing shorts with no shirt or shoes, just like in the pictures she had seen of him. He was smiling and waving at her to follow him as he went through the swinging wooden gate that went out the back of the yard to the woods. She followed without fear. He had only gone maybe fifty feet where he climbed a tree. She reached the foot of the tree and looked up. He picked something from the tree and dropped it to the ground in front of her. She picked it up. It was mistletoe. She looked back up at him and he was smiling and nodding his head yes. She glanced back down at the mistletoe in her hands and when she looked up, he was gone. She was in a state of euphoria as she walked back to her truck for the trip home.

It was 7:30 am when they unlocked the back door to the offices. They went through their usual opening activities and discussed what they needed to accomplish for the day. Isaiah showed up promptly at 8 am. They went into her office and sat down. By the end of the meeting, he had given her a $20,000 deposit with a contract for a wholesale order that would repeat each quarter. As he was leaving to walk out the door he turned and said," Oh, Samantha, would you have any mistletoe?" She answered him," Yes I do!" he said he would get back to her on that and they waved goodbye. She called her brother and asked him if she did all the work could they agree on a split for the profits? He had no problem with it and suggested she call some surrounding landowners, all of which they knew, and asked them if they would work out a deal from their woods. Before they hung up their phones, Michael said, "Remember when Dad would take us out in the pasture and shoot a shotgun up into that tree? We would gather all the mistletoe that fell and sell it for Christmas money." "I sure do" she not having not told him about the previous day. " I think Dad would be happy about this new deal you have going" he mused. "Oh, I think he is very happy about it!" she grinned.

She walked into the bank Tuesday morning and asked to speak with the Bank Manager. He looked surprised and a little disappointed to see her settle her account. A little bird told her later, that he had hoped to make a good profit on the sale of the property. She changed the name of the Nursery from Samantha’s Nursery and Garden Center to Moss & Mistletoe and has never looked back.

Life is like a dream where these seemingly unconnected pieces come together to make a surprising and unexpected dance. If we can move with the music of life we will be quite amazed at the perfect rhythm that unfolds.