Two Peach Trees

The beauty in our lives should be the fruit we have produced, the lives we have touched the love we have shared.

June 17

My daughter and I both bought peach trees last year. We bought them on clearance for honestly just a few dollars. Last year her peach tree didn’t look very good, but it had a little bit of fruit. My tree definitely looked much healthier, but I didn’t get any fruit. What’s up with that? So this year as the leaves were starting to grow and the tree-filled in I saw blossoms. Lots of blossoms. My tree looks so full and beautiful! With all those blossoms, I was sure I would have a nice little harvest this year. All you had to do was look at the tree. It is beautiful and healthy. The perfect condition for it to bear fruit, or at least I thought so. My daughter’s tree still doesn’t look that great. It isn’t bad, but it isn’t luscious and full like mine. It is kinda straggly. It looks a little like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. The crazy part is, her tree is loaded with fruit! The fruit on her tree is growing and looks so good. My tree…. All the fruit shriveled up and died before it even had a chance. I started to do some research because this just didn’t make sense. So, this is what I found. My tree is too healthy! Can you believe it? Early in the spring, I fertilized my tree to ensure it would have all the nutrients it needed to produce good fruit. We also fertilized the grass around the tree as well. All this lead to my tree being overnourished with too much nitrogen in the ground. I would have to put down phosphate to neutralize the abundance of nitrogen. If a peach tree is too healthy it will take all its energy to keep itself healthy and beautiful. It will starve the fruit to maintain it’s beauty. It will sacrifice its purpose to look strong and beautiful. But a tree, like my daughters, with the right balance, will stay healthy enough to produce delicious fruit and healthy enough to grow. The same thing can happen to us as people. When we become more concerned with what our lives look like than the actual fruit we produce, we are out of balance and have lost our purpose. A peach tree’s purpose is to produce peaches. Who cares how beautiful it looks if I never get a peach. The true beauty of a peach tree is in its sweet juicy fruit. The same should be in our lives. The beauty in our lives should be the fruit we have produced, the lives we have touched the love we have shared. We need to stay balanced. Healthy enough to grow and healthy enough to produce fruit.