14 Oct The Lane
Written in honor of the 100 year celebration of Apple Crest Farm
It is gorgeous out! The air is crisp, the sky has a brilliance to it that fills the eyes with delight and the sounds are those of laughter, farm equipment and the chatter of many small conversations weaving themselves into my ears. All in all an amazing day of celebration of Apple Crest Farm!
This is my first time here!
100 YEARS, I reflect to myself, of reaping, planting and trusting that this now obvious abundance would be shared with so many – all from something as small as an apple-seed.
Have you ever looked at an apple-seed? They are so small yet they produce a fruit so filled with goodness: from how they look, to the taste… AND so many different types and textures!!! All from such a small creation, a glorious surprise, when we notice!
I am here with my dear husband, John. Along with my friends, Anne and Janice – of The (W)hole Point Institute and Howie, a Vietnam Vet who was the instigator of this trip! “Come on!?”, he said earlier that week, “you have never gone to an apple picking festival?”
And now here we are!
I find myself walking down the “lanes” between the trees, marked with different colored streamers to identify the apple type for us, “Apple virgins”, so to speak. They wave gently in the breeze as I continue to walk down the Lane.
HUH?
“WALK down the LANE” ….. and quietly, as gently as a baby’s yawn, I am “walking down the lane” with Gail, the manager of the family farm, located in Illinois. My two sisters, and myself have flown out to visit the land and see the farm and meet with Gail.
At this moment, Gail is sharing the “legends” of “Walking the Lane”.
“When ever things are tough, which is often in the life of a farmer:
The weather threatening the crops
The equipment failures and rust-outs
Family illnesses and tragedies
The crops that failed even to take root or the pests that ate them before harvest
Whenever things are amazing, which is often in the life of a farmer:
A crop that is bountiful beyond our expectation or logic
The years that our equipment kept going despite our expectations and the rust holes
Continual unfolding of marriages and births and new friends
New acres that we somehow managed to buy up to grow our farm
Regardless… (continued Gail) …. I walk The Lane every day. It is as I walk this Lane that I open my heart and steady myself to receive it all.”
Gail paused in the walk and stopped. He turned and faced me, and said:
“It is not for me to decide what life brings to me. It is for me to choose to open my heart and receive all that comes. Knowing there are blessings there – hidden or obvious. It is as I walk The Lane, that I am able to do this. Is it that The Lane is magical, having some power over me or is it that The Lane invites me to settle into the mystery of trusting? ….
“I can’t say”, adds Gail, after a pause, “maybe both! What I can say is that there is surely something that happens as I walk The Lane.”
Then as we continued to walk, he adds with a wink and a twinkle in his eye, “This strip of dirt road, which I call The Lane, has also served as a dirt run way for the single engine airplane: the one that your dad and his dad would fly from NY state to visit the farm and discuss all sorts of farm and finance matters. Yup, right here, where we are standing, the plane would land and out they would step – right onto The Lane.
And then we would “Walk the Lane” together, sharing the currency of information.
The land, the equipment, the crops and the family – all the news, shared – as we strolled this one strip of rough dirt, wide enough for a small plane and just the perfect length for a landing and a farm up-date. And then, they would climb aboard the plane, taxi to the end of The Lane, and take off to soar above this farm. And from that “plane-height”, they could see the weaving of lanes across the county. It is all about The Lane.”
And then just as an infant’s yawn ends so you might even miss its completion, I was once again walking between the row of apple trees at Apple Crest Farm.
And I knew in that moment that, on every farm, in every country regardless of the produce of the moment – apples to oranges to nuts, etc., they are all connected. LANES connect us all!
Every part of our world is woven from a tapestry of LANES. They may be called streets or alleys or grove paths or highways or sidewalks or spaces between the rows of apple trees – still lanes.
And beyond this is the greater-knowing that each of our moments is a “walk down The Lane”.
Are we seeing the abundance around us, like apples so heavy that the branches are bending, waiting to be plucked and enjoyed?
Are we appreciating the sounds and tastes and smells of life that our bodies allow us to experience?
Are we consciously opening our hearts to receive what comes – trusting that we will live to see the harvest, the season of fallow and the time of planting over and over and over?
I came to pick apples. I went to my first Apple Festival.
I found myself “Walking The Lane”. I showed myself the world.
THANK YOU to APPLE CREST for all you do, that we do not even know you do, to bring this time to us each year.
You better believe I’ll be back next year! I wonder what my “Walk down The Lane” will reveal to me then.
For now, I am going to go learn to make applesauce from my friend Lisa, who has an amazing recipe, which shall remain secret.
Alaya
Oct 14, 2013