's motd Sunday May 11, 2008

[Guest guest]

LEMON TREE, VERY PRETTY

Sunday, 11 May 2008

You all remember that old song by Harry Belafonte, don't you?

When I was just a lad of ten, my father said to me...Come here and take a lesson from the lovely lemon tree...Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet...

Oh, I just always loved that song!

Well, about ten years ago, I was at a local nursery and I passed a lemon tree. And guess which song I started to sing as I passed it? That's right, Lemon Tree! And you know what? With that song playing in my head, I went back and bought that lemon tree. As soon as I got it home, I planted it on a little hillside next to my house.

My pretty lemon tree took to the earth right away. And soon, little lemons were born and I got to pick them right from my tree and bring them straight to the kitchen. They were rather small, only about three inches long but when you sliced into them, they were just full of juice.And good for me because I just love to make lemonade. Squeeze some lemons, add water, Sweet & Low, ice and oh, it's so nice! About five years ago, we had a very terrible storm here in Los Angeles. There was so much thunder and lightning. Hattie and Dolly barked for hours at the clapping thunder and the raging wind.When I got out of bed the next morning, I went outside to check for any damage. There were lots of broken branches that had fallen from trees around my house but I was thankful that there was no more damage than that. But when I went over to check on my sweet lemon tree, my heart just broke!

It seems a bolt of lightning had struck my lemon tree and had split its trunk in half! I ran over to it and wept at the sight of my poor, injured lemon tree. Lemons from the tree were scattered everywhere. Worse, part of the tree leaned over and was about to fall completely to the ground.I called my Gardner and told him he had to come over immediately...because it looked like I had a dying lemon tree. He rushed over right way, tied the tree up and put stakes around the trunk to help hold it up. Following my Gardner's advice, I also bought some tree vitamins, mixed them with water and fed my pretty lemon tree as often as I could when I was in town. Somedays, I would even pray right there next to my lemon tree.

And lo and behold, after weeks of my nurturing and prayers, one day, I spotted one single, solitary green leaf beginning to peek from the top of the tree. That was all I needed to see! It looked like my lemon tree was coming back! Later, a few more leaves began to sprout, then more and a couple of months later, the entire tree was filled with lush, green leaves and new growth!I watched it carefully for the next week or two and soon, there it was...my first new baby lemon! It seemed everytime I looked, there was another one and before you knew it, the tree was filled with baby lemons waiting to grow up. Now that could be the end of the story but wait, there's more!

See, that new crop of lemons? Well, they were no longer just three inches long. I'm telling you, that had to be nine to ten inches long! Really, they were the biggest lemons I had ever seen in my life! They were so big and heavy, they would just fall off the tree on their own.I was so shocked at their size. I proudly showed off my new, giant lemons and everyone else was just as shocked as I was by how huge they were. And when you cut into them, there is juice galore. I will make lemonade later today and enjoy every sip as I stare out my kitchen window gazing at this amazing tree that made such an incredible comeback. I often wonder what made that tree change so much. Was it the stakes the Gardner placed around it? Was it the vitamins I fed the tree everyday. Or did God just want to make a little miracle for me in my back yard, because of my prayers?By the way, I'm very excited to be back in town to do my radio show, Lighten Up for Sirius Satellite Radio. I've missed doing shows for the past two weekends because I was on the Cruise To Lose.I'm really glad to be back so that I can do what I love most and that's help people. Hope you have a blessed day and a very pretty one, too!

I will toast you today with a glass of lemonade and wish you good thoughts!Love,

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