A life lesson from an orange tree

Last Sunday morning, after a long hiatus, I decided to take a walk through our property in search for inspiration. My hope was that I would find something that would help me bring this food blog back to life.

As I was getting ready to give up, thinking I had written every possible article about my lakou lakay and its fruits, and that I needed to seek inspiration elsewhere, I stumbled upon an orange tree, which we had given up on for the past two years or so.

That tree had been leafless for years; moldy spots could be seen on its trunk; and when it bore fruits, they were tiny oranges that quickly dried up before even starting the ripening process. We were thus convinced we had a dead orange tree that was worthless; so worthless that we simply used its trunk as the perfect support to hang plants on.

But today, our orange tree is showing signs of life!

Its apparently dead trunk now boasts budding branches. They’re still weak but the leaves are a vibrant green that looks promising. Though it probably won’t bear fruits this year for its new branches are still young, too young for it to have flowers, I do believe next citrus season will be a fruitful one for this tree.

After so many years of struggle, our orange tree is coming back to life! Perhaps it is doing more than just that. Perhaps it is also teaching me a lesson.

In 2016, I let life, its obligations and setbacks get in the way of my pursuing some of my dreams. I failed to create time for my hobbies and myself. I even gave up on the small things that brought joy to my life, including cooking and writing this blog. Needless to say, 2016 was a rough year.

Stumbling upon that tree that morning may have been just what I needed at the beginning of the year. It made me realize that no situation is hopeless. Just like that tree found the inner strength to come back to life – we never tried to revive it – as humans we too have the power to overcome any challenge that comes our way.

With this rather unusual food story, I want to wish you a new year filled with hopes. I want to urge you to pursue your dreams regardless of life’s many challenges.

Know that no matter what 2017 might throw at you, you have it in you to overcome anything and everything.

Remember that when things get tough, the tough gets going.

Do not ever give up on what makes you happy!

I also want to encourage you to take walks through nature. Mother Nature works in mysterious ways. When you visit her, she may give you just the strength you need to keep going.

After all, she did just that with me that morning with that revived orange tree 😉

Happy New Year to you and yours!

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8 Comments

  • Lynn

    Hi Annick
    What a sweet story. As a lover of oranges who is also having issues with her tree this year I wonder how your orange tree is? Did it produce fruit? Does it still? Please update. Would love to hear more or any advice you may share.
    Thanks so much.
    Lynn

  • Martine Romain Megie

    Encore bravo. Tu vas murir avec cet arbre. Amour toujours.

  • Antoinette

    Beautiful and very inspirational. Thank you for the motivation.

    • annick

      Thank you for reading Antoinette 🙂 Glad I gave you some motivation!

  • Maman Piou

    Yes… We all have that extraordinary capacity to revive from our own ashes 😉 Very nice article, ma grande Piou 😏

    • annick

      Merci manman Piou 🙂

  • Missmo

    😉

  • Missmo

    Ce sont ce très bons conseils Anick, ne jamais renoncer à ses rêves. J’attends donc avec impatience les merveilles que vous allez nous montrer cette année. Bonne année 2017 et à très bientôt;

    • annick

      Merci de votre grande fidélité Missmo! A très bientôt! 🙂

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