(Kelly Rae Roberts)

Dear Reader:

As a history teacher I have always found it fascinating to compare our interpretation, today, to some event in history… from the safe vantage point of decades and /or centuries later in hindsight…Yet how different it was for those people living at the time of the event (whether war-related or some other kind of crisis) and not knowing what the outcome would be.

This is especially true this time of year as we wait for the annual Easter Story…the Crucifixion and  Resurrection. We have the benefit of knowing the outcome of the story today…but not so for the people living then. And aren’t we mortals quite impatient when we want to know the ending to something and aren’t willing to “allow the unfolding?”

Psalm 106: 13 says it best:…“But they soon forgot what He had done and did not wait for His plan to unfold.” 

In one form or another…several times a week, I read excerpts from famous theologians, religious authors, and shared blog writers who all remind all of us that this journey through life is not ours alone…we are not expected to solve problems or live life alone…we are to be still and listen for God’s guidance and allow His plan to unfold.

In fact, right now, during Advent, isn’t the idea of waiting for God’s “plan to unfold” the focal point of this season?

During our own lifetimes when health crises or financial crises (or any other type of crises) hit…don’t we always want to know the ending right then and there…if we are going to “live happily ever after” instead of just trusting in God for His plan to unfold for us?

Nature understands this…(Sometime I think that Nature is the higher “creation” in God’s hierarchy…not man.) No matter how much a plant might want to bloom intuitively they wait for the right time to reveal their hidden beauty…kept secret during the winter months.

And speaking of secrets…Sherlock Holmes (a.k.a. Doodle Simpson) stopped by yesterday and studied the unnamed white blossoming tree, in my side yard intently…it was then that she noticed an important clue…not recognized earlier. The tree had thorns growing from the stems off the branches. The bark was similar (a little lighter) than my Bradford Pear and the trunk slightly narrower…but the main clue…the thorns.

Taking another sample from the tree (including more information and descriptions)..Doodle returned home and went to work. After following more investigative scrutiny, she emailed me and announced, that the best guess her research produced: (Drum roll please!)  It is a Wild Plum Tree!!!

I immediately pulled pictures up on the internet and there it was …complete with the right trunk, bark, thorns, and blossom design. Doodle said she still might be wrong…but based on her hypothesis this was her best inclination. I told her it looked like it to me too…the Mystery of the White Blossom Tree is “officially” now closed.

From now on…I will tell people who stop and ask about it annually… that it is a Wild (Native) Plum tree…(Prunus Americana.) 

*It makes sense because when we, initially, moved into this neighborhood in 1982 an elderly gentleman in poor health lived next to us….and he had let the yard go back to nature which we loved. It was like another lot separated the two houses and there were lots of wild azalea bushes and other beautiful native plants. This was one tree that survived cut-backs by later neighbors who bought the house.

So we didn’t have to wait too long for this secret to “unveil” but it was fun having your help and interested curiosity in the mystery.

Monday evening Walsh, Kaitlyn, Tommy, Mandy, and myself had fun helping Tommy and Kaitlyn decide if they are going to keep the name Khaleesi or change it to something else…The texted exchange got funnier and funnier…not sure what the final outcome will be…but it was just enjoyable helping in the “unveiling” process.

Tommy and Kaitlyn got side swiped a couple of weeks ago on their way to work on I-26 (a young driver not paying attention…most likely texting) and it totaled Tommy’s old car…which is never good since the amount of money left to put on another car…if slim to nil. But the most important thing was neither were hurt.

Tommy had some good news yesterday… which ended his waiting for a “car plan to unfold”…he got a newer car. He said this was his first “big boy” car since all the other preceding ones have been family cars handed down when they bought new cars.

Lots of changes…lots of fun…and love…as you can see with this other sibling affection between big (though smaller) brother Pip and his new “Sissy. (Khaleesi) *Tigger is going to be jealous if he sees this.

I worked hard outside yesterday in the garden and back yard..cutting back dead stems off the mums, picking up lots and lots of pine cones and sticks…throwing out broken planters and containers, pulling off dead vines from the morning glories that once reigned so prolifically on the fence last summer. …(When I came back in around 1…I was so hot…my face was beet red.)

But later yesterday evening…it was worth it as I stood on the deck and looked out…slowly but surely all the dead vines are off the fence and the dead branches off the trees are disappearing from the landscape.

 It is all part of God’s plan being unveiled…nature’s way of cleaning out debris to make way for new life that is surely coming…(with just a little help from me.)