SweetTart

I didn't want to tell the tree or weed what it was. I wanted it to tell me something and through me express its meaning in nature.

Wynn Bollock

Another thing that I am amazed by in California are it's citrus trees. Apple trees, I grew up with and enjoy, but seeing an orange and grapefruit tree stills gives me the tingles. What is amazing is how much of that citrus rots on the ground after they become ripe in November/December. I always want to go pick them up and send them to family/friends given the cost of citrus in the Midwest and East Coast. Guess that comes from receiving so many citrus gift packages over the holidays when I was growing up....But the trees are also good teachers. You've heard the saying,' if life gives gives you lemons you make lemonade'. Well I'm thinking of a new adage, 'when you take the fruit from an orange tree, you get sweet or tart'. And it's what you do with that experience that makes all the difference.

I found out that I have to have surgery on my shoulder. It will leave me healing for a few weeks to a couple of months. It's sweet in that I know why I've had problems with the shoulder the last year and it can be fixed, i.e. not a degenerative condition which seems to run in my siblings. It's tart in that I have do some major rearranging of life and there's a good chance I may not get to Vietnam in the time frame I was looking at. My trip to Arizona may also get postponed. I'll know more tomorrow. But I'm going to take a positive outlook and push forward...Who knows maybe I'll get a photo essay out of it.

Orange Juice, "Rip It Up":