Fig Tree Wisdom
This is our fig tree. It didn’t always look like this. A gift to my husband from his brother, our fig lived in a pot by our front door for years. I liked that. The pot was a great place to stash mail and packages behind when they didn’t fit in the mailbox. But the fig didn’t like it.
It never really grew. We were lucky to get one fig a season.
Two years ago, we transplanted this fig, from the pot to a sunny corner in our front garden. And lo, it took off. It grew in size, and the number of the figs keeps growing!
Reflecting on this phenomenon, I realized a few (obvious) life-lesson reminders:
Things need to be in their right environment to thrive. I realize this may sound obvious, but sometimes I forget the obvious. A plant stuck in a pot has no room to grow. Duh. And this little obvious fact applies across the board: I don’t like living in gray-weather climes, and thus have been not only happier but able to find more peace & success here in sunny California.
Sometimes it takes a while - maybe a long while! - to see the growth and and success of an action. Patience is a virtue, and one that I have in short supply. Making challah every week and waiting for the yeast to proof is a great reminder for me to practice patience. And now after two years - yes, count them…almost two years (That’s almost twenty-four months; that’s almost 700 days; that’s almost seventeen thousand hours. That’s a long time.) the fig tree has grown, and is now producing more fruit.
The right ingredients - even when it’s as simple as only some sunshine and the right spot in the garden - and not necessarily complicated regimens are often all that’s needed to thrive. I like to keep things simple. Simple real food, often that I make; a simple weekly challah recipe; and now a reminder that just some sunshine and the right spot in the garden is all it takes to thrive.