The Believing Tree

When we moved into our Arizona home, there was a section in the back right corner of the yard that had been used as a dog pen. Having no intention of using it for that, we removed the iron gate around it and pondered over how to decorate it. My first inclination was to convert it to some cute little sitting area in which no one would ever actually sit. My second idea was to move Anna Cate's playhouse to that corner since it did offer some shade.

After moving the playhouse over to the corner, I realized that it didn't really have enough space there. Considering the little palm beside the area had not grown since we moved, I suggested pulling it out of the ground. Anna Cate overheard this idea and was vehemently opposed. (If you know AC, you know that even at 5, she could definitely be "vehemently" opposed to something.) She began to inform us that that tree was her "believing tree". She said that if we cut it down, it would never have a chance to grow, but if she believed in it and sang to it, it would start to grow. Within two months, a new frond began to appear out the top of that silly little tree.

Skip forward one year. Anna Cate now wants to plant some flowers...in the ground. Let me mention that flowers only survive around here if there is a sprinkler line that runs directly into their root bed. Can you guess where the one extra line was? That's right, it ran right beside her "believing tree".

Believing she would lose interest, I told her that if she removed all the rocks and dug a trench-like hole, we would plant some seeds. The phone rang and I left her there to begin her work. Thirty minutes pass and I return outside to check on her. There she is, sweat dripping from her forehead, sitting in front of a parched piece of ground with a perfectly dug hole. Like I promised, we plant the seeds and two weeks later we began to see little seedlings sprouting.

The other day, she overheard me marveling about the tree and flowers that now bloom around it and remarked, "Everything just needs someone to believe in it."