Depp's Pink Firefly

Orange Heart

Imagine walking into a lush orchard. There are birds nesting above and around you. A gentle chirping sound floats in the air that says, "Welcome to our home."

You reach up into the branches of the nearest tree. It is hung with Christmas ornament fruit, in vivid colors: deep red, sunny yellow, neon orange. Rest one in the palm of your hand. Feel the weight of it, the sweet and tangy goodness of it. Know that it is a gift to you, perfectly wrapped, from Nature itself. It is a food and a medicine, but it is more to you in this moment.

With a firm and gentle grip, you snap the fruit from the tree. You will feel it in the sound. Snap.

In your hand it is fragile, perishable. It will feed you. It will purify you. It is a tomato.

And the beauty is that you do it over and over again, and the sound teaches you about the abundance of Nature. Fill your basket, and pick up another one. Snap. Snap. Take a picture.

Wander around the garden that is an orchard, and feel the growing things there. Brush up against the skunk marigolds. Startle baby bunnies in the carrots. Be startled by a snake moving across your path.

Sit down and listen to the birds some more. A butterfly dances by and lands close enough for you to talk to. Pull weeds out of the ground, and in your mind you are pulling the weeds out of your life. You are the co-creator; you get to say which plants are weeds.

The garden is an oasis, a place to go, a labor of love, an achievement, an empowerment, a sanctuary, a temple; yes, it is all of these things.