Signs of Healing

For Camille's birthday in April we planted this oak tree in our front yard. It looked beautiful. But after a couple of months we noticed some of the leaves were turning brown.

You can see in this picture that it is looking a bit dry. We called our landscaper friend to come look at it. He told us we had buried the tree too deep when we transplanted it and it was suffocating under all the soil.

Jon took it upon himself to save this tree. He was out there working to unearth it and raise it up to be at the proper level to thrive. At first it seemed to get worse. It lost all its leaves. We had piles of dirt all around our front yard. But we kept hope.

Then after a few weeks we began to see real signs of life. See the new leaf buds!

New leaves did emerge. And while they haven't grown as large or as full as they were, we are hopeful that next Spring the tree will look every bit as good as it did before.

You may have noticed that my posts have become more sparse. This also is a sign of healing. Like the tree I am not as filled out as I once was or would like to again be someday. But, I have had signs of life in the form of peace, hope, and even ... gratitude yes ... gratitude for my trials lately. That seems pretty amazing to me even as I am writing it. But it is true.

I hope both the tree and I continue to grow and bloom with the seasons.