The Life of a Fallen Apple

In my mind, nothing speaks to autumn quite like a day at an apple orchard or a pumpkin patch. This past weekend we made our annual family outing to pick apples as part of my mother in law Cathy's birthday celebration. Our favorite variety of apples by far are the supremely delicious honey crisp apples, so we always look for that section of the orchard with the hopes that the trees are still brimming with the extraordinary fruit. This year we made our annual outing a little bit later than we have in previous years, so I was a concerned that we might have missed our opportunity to get some honey crisps, but to my delight we found the trees better than half full still and we managed to stock up on enough apples to last us well into the fall. 

Every year that we go apple picking I am surprised by how many apples I see on the ground, but this year in particular I couldn't believe my eyes. There seemed to be as many if not more apples lying in the grass as there were hanging on the branches. My thoughts immediately went to scarcity as I thought about all the potential food that was being wasted as it got knocked off the tree and left to rot by haphazard apple pickers. I couldn't help but wonder why people couldn't be more careful as to not knock apples off of the tree while picking - OR- why the orchard wouldn't enact some sort of waste reduction strategy to collect and repurpose the fallen apples in some way. 

My curiosity about fallen apples led me to do some investigation as to why so many apples are left to rot on the ground and what I learned got me thinking about the life cycle of an apple in an even more existential way than I could have ever imagined. As it turns out, there are some orchards that collect fallen apples on a daily basis and use them to make things like cider or apple butter. There are other fallen apples that find a second life on livestock farms who purchase them at a bulk rate to incorporate into a balanced and healthy part of their animal feed. Part of the bio-diversity of a healthy orchard is dependent on the small animals, insects and birds that are part of the overall ecosystem. A healthy amount of fallen apples insures that all the fauna of a particular region can thrive allowing the orchard itself to thrive. 

The most powerful piece of wisdom I gained in my investigation into the world of fallen apples helped explain to me exactly why there were so many fallen apples on this most recent trip to the orchard. When apples become more overripe, they have a greater tendency to fall off of the tree even before they are disturbed by would be apple pickers. Since we were picking later this year. more fruit was overripe and had already fallen to the ground. These overripe apples have a higher sugar count which makes them the ideal candidates to decompose naturally, enriching the soil to improve the sustainability and productivity of future generations of apples. Some farmers even go so far as to say that allowing these overripe apples to return to the earth helps make the offspring of the next harvest even sweeter. 

As I sat with this new information, I couldn't help but notice the mind bending symbolism of it all. Earth Mother gave life to the apple tree and all of her offspring gave their own lives in their individual journeys back home. Some of the apples lived a life where they fed humans who would eventually return to earth themselves. Some of the offspring fed livestock who would then in turn feed humans. Other apples still, became part of an ecosystem that sustained the flora and fauna of the orchard itself. In the end, it was the fallen apples, the ones that I had originally labeled as waste, that had the most direct and in some ways the most impactful journey back home, in that they returned in short order to the exact source that nurtured them in the first place. As my podcast cohost Deb would say, "Holy Pickles!" 

What are the fallen apples in your life right now? Maybe you feel like you are wasting your time, money or some other resource you have at your disposal? Perhaps it would serve us all well to consider the larger perspective and distill some esoteric wisdom from things we might otherwise label as the throw away circumstances of life. In my mind there is always a deeper story behind the surface of the story. 

Thanks for following along with this week's reflection. I hope it gave you some food for thought. If my story about the life journey of a fallen apple was intriguing to you, I invite you to join me Thursday October 5th at 7:00 PM central for 75-minute interactive discussion called Living Your Own Hero's Journey. The call is hosted by MenLiving, but is open to all genders. Come out for a night of connection and community. You might even have a chance to discover some of your own fallen apples and take a look at your own personal hero's journeys. You can register and get more info about the free call at the EventBrite link right here.

And last but not least, Episode #27 of the It's About Life Podcast is live. Our topic this time around is forgiveness and you can download the episode by clicking on the image at the bottom of this email. 

Peace and blessings for the week ahead, 

Jim