Saturday, April 6, 2013

proof

Just about every day another piece of mail arrives with a form letter that "expresses condolences" and requests proof of life events.  My brother in law Paul said that i would need lots of death certificates.  I have 20 copies. Yesterday I got a request for our marriage license - a document long since lost or misplaced. Why would I ever  need it anyway. I called the number and talked to a nice young person and found out how to get what I needed on-line.  I hung up and went out to the orchard. There is proof of life and marriage. We planted thirty trees.  They are a mixed offering of apples - cider and eating as well as peaches, plums and pears. We picked out each tree together reading up on the pros and cons. With the help of our buddies we  planted them together , mowed between the rows together, and built a deer fence that rivals the walls separating nations - together.  Spring means it  is time to take off the mouse guards so I began at the top of the orchard and moved slowly from tree to tree. Tom's handmade stakes with his loopy writing were sticking out of the ground. I moved tags, cleared away debris from the winter and cried a lot.  Geese flew overhead honking their way north and small cyclones of leaves whirled in the breeze. The early spring sun felt good .  Proof of life, death, love and commitment, it seems to me at least, does not reside in bits of paper to be found on line, but in orchards and pruning and geese. 

2 comments:

  1. You have a gift for seeing beauty and truth and finding an abundance of love in it all. Hang in there, Bird. (Firewood stacked??... feel free to save some for May!)

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