Wait

The Chinese bayberry tree outside my office is full of low hanging fruit right now. A quick Google search told me of the fruit’s amazing properties being high in antioxidants, used to reduce blood pressure and treat diabetes over the centuries. I’d never seen such a tree or tasted its fruit before.

Amador, the hardest working man on campus, will, at a moment’s notice, change direction in response to his supervisor’s requests coming through the radio at his side. He’ll be off to set up a meeting room or remove a file cabinet from someone’s office in the time it takes to blink. In a moment between assignments he told me that I had discovered “their” secret about this small, delicious and nutritious treat that most passerby’s thought was purely ornamental.

Since moving offices to this building I’ve sampled these sweet/tart bayberries each day, telling IT techs and professors and anyone else for that matter about my discovery. Even those who’ve worked in this building for years who’d only noticed the squishy mess of dropped fruit on the tiled walkway below.

My newfound enjoyment came to an abrupt halt the day before though. A loud noise from outside caught my attention causing me to look out my second floor office window. A maintenance man on a mission who, with a ladder strapped to the top of his campus golf cart, had gotten hung up in the low hanging branches of the fruit laden tree.

What followed was a pruning that seemed to be retaliatory in nature. While I know that pruning produces new growth, the result of the man in the cart with the ladder was that no one but the local crows could access the bayberry fruit. Without a ladder, that is. So for now the crows alone will have the health-dispensing fruit to enjoy. I’ll be witness to that from my upper deck view as I wait.

And there it is. Sometimes we can do absolutely nothing but wait. We can see a good thing with our own two eyes —unaccessible to us and we can do nothing more than watch as others enjoy whatever “it” is.

Be patient dear soul. Time and growth will bring it back again. Within your reach, not just within your sight. Be patient and wait for whatever it is.