A PEAR TREE

A young pear tree, full of promise, grew in a garden of life. Surrounded by rich soil, bird song, blue sky mountains, and new construction noise, it thrived. Dark green leaves, tiny buds, thin branches on a yet unsteady trunk, quake in the soft spring breezes. It stood ready for a young city, a new family, a yard, fruit, and recipes of love in the garden of life.

Tiny buds turn into blooms. Blooms turn into blossoms. The pear tree continues to thrive in the summer heat. Surrounded by the fresh smell of paint and wood, new houses, new families, a field of prairie dogs overlooking blue sky mountains and highway traffic. The new city bustles with the noise of progress and promise, all surrounding the garden of life.

Summer heat gives way to cooler breezes. Fall foliage turns into an explosion of oranges, browns, yellows, and reds. The pear tree has its own unique burnish of these colors. A new family moves in. A young husband and wife, full of promise, now own the pear tree in the garden of life.

Naked branches shake in freezing winds. Snow swirls at the base of the yet young tree trunk. The fruit tree waits steadfastly for warmer temperatures, sunnier skies, colorful times, greener grasses, and a growing family to love in the garden of life.

Spring has a new bounce in its step. A new carpet of pale green grass lays at the trunk of the pear tree. New leaves darken green in the sunny skies. Buds swell in warmer temperatures as a young couple awaits a fruit of its own in the garden of life.

The young couple toils in the garden while an infant sleeps in its carrier. The new mom tends to the flowers and bushes while the dad prunes the branches of the pear tree. He fusses over the blossoms bearing the promise of fruit to come. The mom thinks about all the recipes she can make with the sustenance of this fruit to come in the garden of life.

Enter autumn colors, plump, ripe fruit, a toddling child, and the song of crickets and toads all basking in the late sun rays under the pear tree in the garden of life. The father has his bushel basket full of golden yellow pears, the mom busily making canned pears, jams, and jellies for the winter. Father, mother, and child all sit down under the pear tree to enjoy a pear cobbler as they say goodbye to another season in the garden of life.

And so it goes as new seasons come and go, the pear tree remains steadfast. It provides beauty, shade, sustenance, and a home to many critters in each season. As a young family grows older, they bask in the delights the pear tree provides every year. Sprinklers sputter, children and dogs play, mom weeds, dad mows, burnished, colored leaves fall, fruit plops, all in the garden of life.

One day a young girl studies the knots in an ever widening tree trunk in the garden of life. She looks up to a brown speckled bull snake watching her from the ledge of the fence. She runs to her steadfast dad who is always there for her. He swiftly grabs a shovel and takes care of the danger. The girl learns at a young age that trees and dads and fruit can always be counted on to provide sustenance through the years, in the garden of life.

As all living creatures do, the tree, the girl, and the dad age. The girl becomes a woman who grows her own pear tree and fruit. But it lacks the luster of her dad's tree, so she visits frequently. Father and daughter sit in the shade under the pear tree in each season. She takes his freckled hand and says "I will always take care of you". He smiles in the garden of life.

An old pear tree is done growing in the garden of life. Its trunk is knotted, its branches are gnarled. The bark is thick and capable of deep gashes. It has stopped producing fruit. Another family lives there now, oblivious to the fruit tree's beauty or past potential. A woman visits her daddy in hospice. She takes his gnarled hand in hers and says "You were the best daddy I could have asked for. You always provided sustenance for all of my life. Your job is done. You may go now." And the dad smiled and took his last breath. To this day the woman hates snakes, loves pears, and sobs under a pear tree, every day, in the garden of life.