The small little citrus trees in my yard are not doing so good. It is nothing that I am doing. Exactly. I am doing nothing, and consequently my trees are not doing so great. A thriving citrus tree is actually pretty simple. Here is the steps that I really need to follow:
1. The tree needs to have a lot of sunshine. This is the tree’s primary food source.
2. The tree needs a lot of water, but not too much water. The way to manage this is with well drained soil.
3. I need to prevent the tree from getting too cold in the winter.
4. I need to make sure the tree does not have any distracting branches that withdraw needed nutrients from the main ones.
5. Give the tree some basic nutrients occasionally that it needs to thrive and fend off disease.
These steps are not complicated at all. I know exactly what to do, and how to do it. The watering of these trees are all on drip system, and the maintenance required to keep them healthy is probably a once a month activity lasting no more then an hour or so. If I were to just commit this small amount of time, focusing on these essential 5 things, then my citrus trees would flourish and thrive.
As goes the Orange, so goes the human. There are probably no more then 5 things you absolutely have to have in order to thrive, be healthy, strong and fight off disease. We either ignore the basics, or make it so damn complicated that we cannot just do one of these steps well. I wonder if you have ever thought about what your core care instructions are? If you were to put a tag on yourself, so that the new owner would know how to care for you, what would you fit on the small tag as the absolute most basic instructions? Not that I am advocating selling humans in black plastic 20 gallon containers, please do not take the analogy too far. The point is, do you even know what your care instructions are, and do you have a method of maintaining that care?
Seems to me that most of us go through life and do not even consider this concept, and for the most part will either ignore or severely abuse one of the basic care steps. Then when things are falling part all around us, scratch our heads and wonder what is wrong? Most of the time, things get complicated really quickly, when one of the basics are not being met. Now, I am not being absolute on that. There are circumstances that complicated life that are out of our control, and those are difficult to contend with. I will just say that if illness, sudden loss, or something like that hits you, how much worse will be it be if you are also not maintaining your own basic care?
We live in a society that is pretty good. Not perfect, but seriously, look around. We have everything. We are for the most part safe. We have almost every comfort around us. We have the luxury to ignore our basic care and treatment. In earlier times, or in areas of the world less privileged, the concept of ignoring basic human needs is just not even an option because it is life threatening to the person and to the community in which they live. I was looking at woman soothe her small infant today. It made me realize that if have a baby, we will do everything in our power to make sure that baby’s basic human needs are met. We make sure the baby is clean, that it eats healthy, that it gets plenty of fluids, that the baby has a chance to exercise and improve their strength. We are teaching the baby constantly, encouraging, uplifting, and constantly attending to every emotional concern. We make sure the baby has time to relax, and feel comfortable. We make sure the baby gets a good night sleep, so that we can too.
Now grant you, a baby cannot defend itself, so we are naturally going to protect it. However, just because we are adults now does that mean all these basic things are no longer needed? Just as with that Orange tree, if you are not keeping up the basics then you are going to fall apart. Things will just start to wear on you. Some disease will start to cover your fruit, your bark will become dry and flaky, your branches brittle and weak, your leaves wilted and lifeless and your will have some new branch growing that completely defeats what you have already built.
Sometimes I get feeling down, discouraged, struggling for some reason. This is probably just part of being human. We probably all go through this, some more than others, but I wonder how often we closely examine the basic care instructions? My Orange trees are dying. There is not a complicated explanation, it is pretty simple. Not enough water and poor soil nutrition. I can probably take a step back from my own self and examine my basic needs as a human, I am sure I am going to find a deficiency that I need to make sure is being covered. I realized that I had a lack of sleep for several weeks. I fixed that problem, and voila, everything is awesome again.
Maybe we do need to look at ourselves as a system now and then, an Orange Tree even. What major step in your care instructions are you missing right now?
Guy Reams
