{"id":8180,"date":"2018-11-16T09:15:17","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T15:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=8180"},"modified":"2018-11-16T09:12:38","modified_gmt":"2018-11-16T15:12:38","slug":"live-oaks-and-wounded-souls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2018\/11\/16\/live-oaks-and-wounded-souls\/","title":{"rendered":"Live Oaks And Wounded Souls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Susan Boyd and her husband, Blake, had a life, and it was normal, and then came a symptom. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tests and biopsies and scans \u2013 the nervous knot in the stomach – many of you know this bad dance \u2013 and then the diagnosis, and though both are in medicine, they\u2019re in the patient chairs now, the doctor pauses, that last moment of innocence, before pronouncing the two terrible syllables of the C word\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026time slows, it speeds, it blurs, it\u2019s 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, on the necessary conveyor belt of medicine, finding heroes in the local cavalry of cancer specialists, then the trips to Houston, exhaustion, then pause, exhaustion, then pause, the blessed Window of Better, a season of grace, and then the dreaded It\u2019s Back\u2026<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how they ended up at this house.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s a nice house, on a nice street, but the real reason was to be near the hospital.<\/p>\n

God Made Them All Different,\u00a0God Adores Them All The Same \u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you divide humanity into two categories, we always start with male and female.\u00a0 <\/span>Another way is by introvert and extrovert. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Susan is an introvert.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The baby oak. Planted with hope.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Few activities are more suited for introverts than gardening.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s solitude with plenty company: the family dog napping in the grass, birds in the branches, bugs and lizards, caterpillars and butterflies, these are your companions in that wonderful natural space where we get near the echo shadow of humanities first residence – the Garden of Eden.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s breezes and wind chimes, textures and colors, it\u2019s dirt on your knees, and dirt on your hands, it\u2019s dirt in all its could-be, dirt, the womb of earth, where just about anything has a chance, and the blessed therapy of feeling like you have some control over at least one thing, at exactly the time when you feel so out of control of everything\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026except\u2026there\u2019s sadness now\u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a natural sadness.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s part of the cycle.\u00a0 <\/span>When your husband is within the house, and going down, it is hard to find the peace, the neutral, that gardening requires. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After The Funeral<\/strong><\/p>\n

Her friend, Laura, sent a check for fifty dollars.\u00a0 <\/span>Just because.<\/p>\n

She knows she\u2019s going to move.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cThat place needed some living people,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Six years later…and in another six…and sixty…and two\u00a0centuries from now, who will know the \u201chow\u201d and \u201cwhy\u201d,\u00a0but all will marvel at the \u201cwhat\u201d it has become…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cBecause you were a shell?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though she knew she would be selling the house she invested the fifty dollars into a baby live oak, and planted it.<\/p>\n

When she listed the house, there was the realty sign, plunked into the yard, and if you stood at a certain angle, the live oak was lost behind the temporary Buy Me of real estate advertising.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She Downsized<\/strong><\/p>\n

She was now in the Land of W\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Wounded.\u00a0 <\/span>Widow.\u00a0 <\/span>Those words.<\/p>\n

The house she bought needed help.\u00a0 <\/span>She hired men.\u00a0 <\/span>They took down, they added, they made it Home.\u00a0 <\/span>But the yard\u2026the yard was hers\u2026and it had nowhere to go, but Up…and neither did she\u2026<\/p>\n

She\u2019s got a hole in her heart, and knows it, but every day the sun rises, and there\u2019s living to be lived.\u00a0 <\/span>The down lasts and lasts, and all she has to show is Still Here, In Motion, but inside, little by little, the miracle of healing is happening.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Susan Boyd, ENT, enjoying a grand\u00a0heirloom live oak that someone else planted,
a gift to the future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2026and one day\u2026she goes to Lowes, and buys some caladium bulbs\u2026like she used to do, as if a dormant bulb of her old life was tired of winter, ready for spring, green coming up through the brown\u2026<\/p>\n

She\u2019s on her knees, with a trowel in one hand and bulbs in another, and a friend stops by to check on her.<\/p>\n

The friend asks, \u201cWhatcha doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m living,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m living.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how it goes.\u00a0 <\/span>We are fearfully and wonderfully made, and we are not meant for defeat.<\/p>\n

The House With The Live Oak\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I imagine her avoiding the old address.\u00a0 <\/span>Maybe for years. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But time passed, with all its mysterious medicine, and she drove by the old place, and the live oak was no longer a puppy.\u00a0 <\/span>It could live for centuries\u2026and people would think, O, the precious acorn, but really, it was the fighting spark, of a cold heart.<\/p>\n

For whom did she plant the live oak?<\/p>\n

\u2026for husband, for herself, for their pairness\u2026<\/p>\n

Or maybe it was planted for something even higher, a person in pain, giving, for strangers, planting something that lasts, and few living things last longer\u2026than live oaks\u2026thinking, here neighbors, here town, here world, here God, here future, here I plant you a pleasure, with no gain unto myself\u2026<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>_\u00a0 <\/span>_\u00a0 <\/span>_\u00a0 <\/span>_\u00a0 <\/span>_\u00a0 <\/span>_\u00a0 <\/span>_ \u00a0 <\/span>_ \u00a0 <\/span>_<\/p>\n

This edition of Uncle P\u2019s Bedtime Stories is brought to you by Eighty-one, which loves a story with roots deep and aim high\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Uncle P can be reached at 81creativity@gmail.com.\u00a0 <\/span>Other Bedtime Stories can be found on the Eighty-one Facebook page.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Susan Boyd and her husband, Blake, had a life, and it was normal, and then came a symptom. \u00a0 Tests and biopsies and scans \u2013 the nervous knot in the stomach – many of you know this bad dance \u2013 and then the diagnosis, and though both are in medicine, they\u2019re in the patient chairs [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[59,894],"yoast_head":"\nLive Oaks And Wounded Souls - BestOfSwla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2018\/11\/16\/live-oaks-and-wounded-souls\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Live Oaks And Wounded Souls - BestOfSwla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Susan Boyd and her husband, Blake, had a life, and it was normal, and then came a symptom. \u00a0 Tests and biopsies and scans \u2013 the nervous knot in the stomach – many of you know this bad dance \u2013 and then the diagnosis, and though both are in medicine, they\u2019re in the patient chairs [&hellip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2018\/11\/16\/live-oaks-and-wounded-souls\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BestOfSwla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bestofswla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-11-16T15:15:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-11-16T15:12:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/uncle-p-inet.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"610\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Pierre Fontenot\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Pierre Fontenot\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2018\/11\/16\/live-oaks-and-wounded-souls\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2018\/11\/16\/live-oaks-and-wounded-souls\/\",\"name\":\"Live Oaks And Wounded Souls - 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