On a recent return to the MS Delta, I was listening to a young author and film maker being interviewed on the radio while driving my tractor. The interviewer asked the young lady if she had any advice for others that aspired to become writers or artists in the future. She replied “Be true to yourself and center yourself in joy”. I had to stop and write that down. At the time I was cutting grass around my tree plantation – 5 acres of hardwoods that I planted behind our home and blogged about in February of 2013. A minute earlier, I had been thinking about the joy that I’d experienced watching these trees grow and watching the wildlife they had attracted and comforted along the way. It was a serendipitous moment where two thoughts from two quite different people in different places (both literally and figuratively) merged at just the right time.
My previous post shows the sapling trees that I was mowing around today in a bucket I used during the planting in 2013.
Back in ’13, I prognosticated that if all went well, these trees should be 25′ tall in 10 years. Today, seven and a half years later, many of the trees have already reached that height and are still moving by leaps and bounds towards the sky. They have done well. Two days ago, I spotted a small doe feeding in the grass adjacent to the trees from my bedroom window. The list of birds I’ve seen this spring and summer darting in and out of the trees is nothing short of a marvel. Everything from the brightly colored Painted Buntings to the drab brown but fleetingly fast Yellow Billed Cuckoo have rested, nested or live year round (Northern Cardinals, for example) in these trees. I’ve also spotted foxes and bobcats along with all the regular cast of characters normally found around a deep south farm house. Here are two pictures of the trees today, the tallest of which are 25′ tall. In the photo of the east field, the two large trees at left were about the size of the smaller trees I planted beyond in 2001 when I moved back to the farm. I saw the deer at the end of the grass path in the picture of the west field and previously have seen the bobcat and fox in the same location.
East Field
West Field
I’m often reminded that there are forces in our world today that continuously pull people towards anger, frustration and hate with irrational arguments and a focus on “out of context” examples of the terrible things that are going on around us. I know what you are thinking, but when I mentioned the fox, that is not what I was talking about. Anyway, I’d like to pass forward my interpretation of the message from the wise and talented young lady I heard on the radio today. Try doing something good that is a reflection of your spirit and values, that brings you (and hopefully others) joy and that makes the world a better place. I can verify that the return on investment is truly amazing.