Breakfast With Herman

“Bring your breakfast out here and keep company with me and my friends this morning” Herman said. So, I did. And as I took a leisurely breakfast, Herman reminded me of our past together. How I had taken him, as a pit (or seed, if you will) from that delectable avocado, and carefully placed him at just the right depth in a glass of water. Then onto the shelf in the window. How I maintained the correct water level as he sent those first little shoots of root toward the glass. And, when he had developed a thick and strong network of roots with a delicate head of sprouting greenery, introduced him into his first tiny pot of rich soil.

We have shared many years, and many successive pots as he grew and developed under my tutelage and nurturing. What a momentous day it was when I decided to usher him into the world of Mother Earth with all of the potential opportunities… and vulnerabilities that she represents. He took to his environment with a flourish and grew with amazing quickness into a wonder of some twelve or thirteen feet in height. Then the storms of 2004. The elderly oak, under which Herman had thrived, lost its hold on one of its dead limbs… it fell… and Herman caught the full weight of it and was broken at just a foot above the ground.

I was saddened to have to remove all that we had enjoyed watching grow to full and healthy stature. But I refused to remove all of him from his place there, under the oak. All that was left was a short stump of what he was. But under that stump there lived a healthy, complete, and strong base of roots that had begun in that tiny glass many years before. And those roots sent power and energy to that wounded remainder of my lovely tree… and he began again! This morning, the voices of Life’s Spirit… or God… or my Muse… or Nature… or Herman… whatever source you care to identify… spoke to me and reminded me of the importance of that initial nurturing in life. How critical the establishment of a strong and healthy root network is to the stability and nourishment of any Being. And how, when life’s happenstances allow some force to break us… seemingly beyond hope (and, Dear Friend, haven’t we all had those times of being ‘broken’?)… we will always draw on the energies… the foundational power… the nurturing supply from our well-established roots.

For some of us, those roots may be stunted by inadequate nurturing and care at our beginnings. It matters not. For right now… at this very moment… we all can cultivate a base of understanding… a system of supportive and sustaining spiritual, physical, emotional, and social sustenance that will establish our own place in Life’s garden. All we need do is open ourselves to the guiding care of our Master Gardener… listen to and respond to the still, small, and gentle voice within that whispers “This is for you” with new opportunities to learn, explore, experience, and grow. And we can be certain that as we encounter those inevitable experiences that cause us injury and pain… we can grow back from those ‘breakages’ stronger and more resilient than before. I know. Herman reminded me just this morning.