Audible Hallucinations: A Free Spirit's Journey In Discovering WHOSE She Really Is by Betsy Meredith Hudgens

Author:Betsy Meredith Hudgens [Hudgens, Betsy Meredith]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-02-21T04:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

THE MULBERRY TREE

Growing up on the ranch was filled with opportunities to explore nature and find mischievous ways to entertain myself. I loved climbing trees and the eighty-acre ranch was full of various species, and they were all beautiful. Because I was only five when we moved to the property, I am not completely sure when I was introduced to the most peculiar tree I had ever seen, which stood randomly buried between two other large trees that were completely different. As a young child, I vaguely remember my mom taking me to this spot, which was probably about a mile from our house, and handing me these large, plump berries that she reached up and picked. She referred to them as mulberries. I am not sure if that was what they actually were, but that’s what they became known as to my taste buds. I remember her telling me that it was hard to get the mulberries because, as soon as they were good to eat, the birds got them and, unless we were right there to compete, they would be gone.

Every year, until we moved, it became an annual challenge for me to make the trek to the mulberry tree every day during the appropriate season to see if I could get my hands on the berries. Because we never were able to find these in the grocery store, I had to stalk the tree, wait for the berries to arrive, and figure out how I would get them before the birds did. When I was smaller, I remember dragging milk crates, old buckets, and logs out of the barn, which was quite a distance away for a young kid, and using them to gain height so I could grab a branch and climb. To this day, I think of that tree every spring and wonder if the owners of the property even know of its existence.

For more than twenty years, I never had the opportunity to see what I had come to know as a mulberry tree or the berries anywhere. I chalked it up to one of those childhood memories that I would cherish and hold dear, but never imagined experiencing it again. In 2009, right in the middle of trying to figure out what was wrong with my body, I decided to go for a long walk. Anyone who encounters me, quickly experiences that I am full of energy, sometimes nervous energy, and I have to keep moving. The stress of my marriage, with the lack of healthy physical intimacy, and other life stressors were really weighing on me. I didn’t know what I needed, and wasn’t praying for anything specific at the time, but was simply walking on a path along a busy road in Fort Collins. I had my dog Roscoe, who was just a pup at the time, and together we were enjoying the sunny day.

As I was on the last mile of my walk, I neared a tree that I had walked and driven by hundreds of times, but that day it got my attention.

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