The gardner came to our house this week. This doesn’t happen too often, but after a season of monsoon rains in Tucson, we were overflowing with weeds and our trees were seriously wild. This job was way beyond what we could handle, so we were so excited for this clean overhaul.
I got home before my husband did on landscaping day, and our place looked great. It was manicured and perfect. In all honesty, I had forgotten what a truly gorgeous backyard we really do have under all of that growth. When my husband called to ask my opinion on if the gardner had done a good job, despite the perfection before my eyes, there was one tiny thing that was bugging me. My husband heard it in my voice.
We have a pomegranate tree in our backyard, and it actually produces fruit. This year was not our biggest harvest (the orange tree seems to be doing much better), but there was this one pomegranate hanging from a branch that we were just waiting for to perfectly ripen up before picking. When I came home on that Wednesday afternoon, it was gone. The gardner had done his job, and pruned the branches so we could easily walk by on our path without getting hit in the face. Along with the branches went that very pretty pomegranate. Oh well….all’s well that end’s well, right?
My husband laughed as he heard my expression of disappointment. A strange reaction, but then he had his turn to tell his side of the story….
“I, too, have had my eye on that pomegranate,” he began. Long story short, before he had left for work that day, he recognized that this beautiful fruit was in jeopardy of being pruned, and so he picked it and placed it in the fruit bowl on our kitchen table. Sure enough, it was there ready to be enjoyed.
We laughed for a good strong few minutes on the phone after the realization of our cosmic ying and yang of that day. Our little pomegranate is just like us – we look out for each other, and nothing could be sweeter.
That is is why my song of the day is “How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You” by James Taylor, because our love is like a perfect pomegranate that is filled with beauty and sweetness but also needs good attention and care. How sweet it is!