Please enjoy the metaphors and stories I share and apply these similarities to your life. One can envision an orange…every one has had the opportunity to “peel” back the skin of the orange, getting a glimpse of the content while at the same time, experience the “juice” of life that typifies the hidden treasure. Many prefer just the juice, some resisting the “pulp” that helps give the fruit its’ “fibre”. An orange is truly a coordinated work of art, with sections and layers of smaller encapsulated “juice” sacks. Bursting with flavour, one can just feel their mouth water with anticipation.

Life can be just like the orange grove. The potential for great fruit is there, the potential for drought and shriveled fruit is a possibility, that also exists, as famine and drought are a part of the natural order of things . The “section” of the orange make for easy handling…while it is not always easy to peel back, and separate, from the pale fibres, most aware that the peel is pungent.

The beginning of that orange can be traced back to the very “root” of its existence…beyond that to originate in the very cloud-bursts that will nurish it, or the ’seed’ from its parent fruit that reached the earth. It being the decay of others that bring us fertile ground is yet another metaphor, for the generations and “civilizations” that had gone before.  We learn from the lives and life-ways of others…with often a “blueprint” of both anthropologic and genetic underpinning. As we examine the nature of the very tree of life, we recognize that the roots from which we came will mirror those branches that will reach to the sky, somehow knowing not to compete with another neighbouring extension of itself, at the cost of leaf and fruit.

Sitting down to once again examine the fruit itself…a recognition that it is an abundant source of natural purified water…bursting with treasures of vitamin and mineral alike. The sugar that fuels the body and brain is there in the midst of the powerful anti-oxidant of C…as if for Citrus and so much more. Known as if the “sun-kissed” champion from destinations otherwise reserved for the “beautiful people” with their tans and convertibles, we can get too much of a good thing, we now are no longer in denial.

Let not this be only about the “fruit”…the end-product…or the final stage of life. The orange grove itself is a vast community…all with a process and a purpose. The roots have a life beyond that of a single fruit, providing for the continuation of the lineage and beauty, expressed in the orange blossom and the green uniformity that is what an orchard is. This grove is ever alive, while branches must go bare with the seasonal shift, there will be that renewal that brings such glamour to spring. How shall we be rewarded for the watering and nurturing…a thousand fold…one can live a healthier life because of the grove…and live as long as the grove itself as it brings that hope of constant regeneration. They that feel that “life is the pits”, has a naive appreciation of the value of one’s seeds.

BE Wise, BE the change,