BS"D
Last week was the very last chance of the year for saying the blessing over a fruit-blossoming tree. As is the habit of last-minute people like myself, I pushed off the outing, which could have easily taken place in my yard a month ago, till the very last day of the month of Nisan, and the last hour of the day at that. By now our cherry, bilimbi, mango, starfruit, loquat, and soursop trees, as well as our pomegranate bush, had not a single blossom left for me. Some had fruit beginning to grow, some had none, but there was not one delicate blossom anywhere.
So I hopped in the car with the children and drove to a destination suggested to me two days earlier on a women’s chat. The corner of 175th and 7th.
We arrived after two minutes, popped out of the car, including my four-year-old who wasn’t wearing any shoes and my toddler who had on only a shirt and a diaper. We analyzed the four corners of the street. Which one would have blossoms? One corner had no trees, so that was out. Another corner had none, but down the block was a massive tree with gorgeous lavender/pink flowers. Could that be it? We called up my husband who knows these things. Joining us now was another car, out with the same mission of finding a fruit-blossoming tree. I pressed the video and showed my husband. “Be careful,” I mentioned, as he was in the middle of driving down the highway. We waited till he felt it was safe to peer into his phone for a moment. He proclaimed honestly, “That’s an oak tree, I'm sorry.”
The guy in the car left, and we marched to the corner that looked like it might be more promising. There were several trees there.
The people in the house where we parked were kind of staring at us, but I pretended not to notice or care. We looked intently at each tree. Two had delicious looking mulberries. One had the start of avocados, but I wasn't able to pinpoint any blossoms. I think it was the mulberry tree that the poster meant, but I know that from one day to the next, the tree can move on from the flowering stage to the actual fruiting stage. How lovely is that!
The kids begged me to eat mulberries, but we were on a mission to find blossoms and besides, I didn’t know if the berries were buggy, or if we were allowed to pick them from the swale, or even if they were allowed to say the shehecheyanu blessing on a new fruit which we avoid saying during these several weeks after Pesach. And so I said no.
Pretty soon another big van pulled up, and out spilled another family that we know very well. Our cousins! Oh, boy, is being last-minute hereditary?? So we all went looking around. Down the block of the last of the four street corners were some blossoms, but I couldn’t tell if it was a fruit tree. So I tried to call my husband but, but just then a dog started barking at us, and there are those of us who have dog-barking fears. My kids barked back, and I yelled at them because I was embarrassed that they were barking at a dog and because I was feeling stressed. But then my husband called to say he was getting off the highway and would be there in three minutes.
As my husband arrived to the very loud gleeful cries of my youngest two, who made him carry them, another car pulled up and asked politely what (in the world) we were doing.
“Oh, you’re looking for blossoms! Follow me to my house, I have in my yard.”
Yay! He was so nice. We walked a block and entered the yard. We talked about a tree he had, and a bush over there, and then we encountered his starfruit tree.
It had intricate, purple-pink blossoms, and my brother-in-law said the blessing word for word for all the children to hear.
It went like this, in English:
Blessed are You Hashem our G-d, the King of the world, Who has made nothing lacking in His world, and created in it goodly creatures and goodly trees for people to enjoy.
“Look at them, enjoy how pretty they are,” my brother-in-law urged.
It was special. Those flowering buds, that represented the future of the tree, its potential to bear fruit, and continue on, and benefit us, the people of Hashem’s world!
And even more special it was, to be able to thank Hashem for it, in the right time.
We lingered a bit, picking a bag of gooseberries that the owner said would taste nice as a jam. Who knows? Maybe I'll try to make jam, if the little ones don’t finish the bag before then. They are tart, but they still ate them, staining their hands and faces in blissful joy.
We headed home, thinking about our delayed supper and bedtime, but so grateful we got to appreciate Hashem’s perfect world in the form of an actual blessing. Thank You Hashem!
I also couldn’t help thinking about how fleeting childhood is. From one day to the next, the trees I searched didn't have blossoms anymore, and as we are compared to fruit bearing trees, it made me realize, so close to home, how deeply I should drink in the moments right now of my budding children. Delight in their cuteness, in their smartness, in their sweet actions. In our last minute outings, in all of our imperfections and wonderful memories. And cherish them for the delicate creations they are! ‘Cause tomorrow they will be their own fruit, producing their own influence on the world. I need to take advantage. I need to give blessings and thanks to Hashem for my precious children-blossoms, every single day.
Also, this blessing, as well as the havdala ceremony at the end of every Shabbos with its blessing on spices, validates my love of plants, herbs, and all the trees and vegetation that enhance our day-to-day life. The fruits in particular merit the blessing, perhaps because people are compared to fruit trees.
G-d doesn’t only want us to survive and live, He wants us to also enjoy this life, to gaze on delicate flowers, to behold fruit and trees, to breathe in their fragrance, and lead a happy, fulfilled life!
May we all have good, long, healthy, productive lives, in which Hashem’s blessings constantly rain down on us.
Have a wonderful day!
P.S In conjunction with our blossom theme, I’ll just mention the lovely natural scents of some of my products.
There’s the rose face cream with thick smells of frankincense, geranium, helichrysum, and lavender.
There’s the citrus sugar scrub with the sweet citrus smells oozing out of the coconut sugar.
There are the relaxing bath salts with the soothing scent of lavender.
There’s the botanical water used as a facial toner with delightful aromas of rosemary, roses, chamomile, and lemon balm.
There’s the deodorant cream for sensitive skin with the clean smells of lemon eucalyptus or lavender lemongrass,
the minty lip balm,
the heady smell of the almost sedative creamy massage oil, and there’s more that I’m missing, but these are enough for now.
Whatever products you choose, remember to savor the pure, natural and heavenly smells that Hashem put there for you, for your benefit. So you should be happy.
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