Lime Chime

Sitting out in the sun, in my little green patch, I had no agenda. Mindlessly wandering through the house, leaving the phone and all other electronic screens and sounds I came out to this ignored nook. The breeze was still chilly this late in January and the skin on my face stretched as I tried looking at the sun.

Though there are quite a few plants out here, none quite gave me the comfort of shade – except for this one lime tree. This used to be a plant, all of about 4 feet when we moved here almost 4 years back. Now standing tall at 20 feet, this was a tree. It never yielded fruit. All around me compared it to other bushes of lime that gave 2-3 kilos every season. Apparently that’s the reason most lime trees remain bushes and never grow tall. They’re kept low by the weight of their yield. This one was different. It just had to reach out. The shaft now almost 7-8 inches in diameter showed how it held ground. I kept avoiding suggestions and instructions by the elders to cut it and let a fruit yielding plant take it’s place and nutrition from earth.

Cut it out? Today?

To leave a tear in the earth? In the earth I called home? Both of us, me and my husband never fathom how to let go of lives around us just coz they didn’t yield what was expected out of them. We were taking it emotionally I was told. This tree grew more than 15 feet right infront of us. Without any attention or care. Took from the earth and the sun what rightfully belonged to it – never cried or whined! Even supported the weed vines. Just let in just the right amount of sun when I sat out under it. Was I being emotional? From the trunk untill the leaves started, it got divided into 3 steady branches- each holding onto it multiple others. Never leaning, never spreading. Never claiming the sun of others.

The leaves were fresh and lemony. They rustled in the winds and held water in the rains, letting it down drop by drop. Squirrels loved it, maybe not birds. But we did have a thick bougainvillaea bush for them birds and other beings. It had thick horns; some kind of defense I assume. It made the skies appear bluer breeze felt cooler when it passed through it. It gave familiarity to my home and air to my lungs. It lent it’s life to support mine. It was family.

Cutting it would be slaughter. One blow for this tree and little by little for us all.

I had been out here way too long and my garden was awfully silent without the chirping playful squirrels and the overactive brown sparrows. I needed to get in. Leave the ground to its habitants that we had just borrowed some space from. I looked up winking to save my eyes from the sun glare and the tree waved in agreement. Let’s get going.

Life, while I was seeking you through doubts & issues, problems & solutions, you were visible only through certainty – through the fusion of me and you both into one.