Doc's Blog!
9/11 Ground Zero & The Healing Power of The Survivor Tree
Dec
On September 11, 2001, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by evil men. On that day in New York City, 2,763 died. That figure includes 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers who gave their lives trying to save those who were trapped in the burning and collapsing buildings. In the weeks that followed, countless other first responders and others who were working in the vicinity trying to search for and save survivors in the collapsed wreckage of the enormous buildings were exposed to chemicals and particles that later cost them their health and, in many cases, their lives.
As workers struggled to remove the wreckage and retrieve the bodies of the unfortunate victims of the tragedy they found, under the smoking heap of debris, a little pear tree. Its roots had broken off. Its limbs and branches were largely destroyed and its surface was horribly charred and scarred. But there was still life in the wood. Specialist arborists were called and the little tree was taken to be cared for by the New York Department of Parks and Recreation. The dead and charred limbs were removed. The wounds were tended to and, for years, the little tree was nourished and cared for by loving hands. Nine years later, in 2010, the little tree was returned to Ground Zero and planted in the memorial park there.
Beautiful, smooth limbs now extend from scarred and gnarled stumps reaching hopefully skyward in a celebration of new life. New bark is beginning to cover the old wounds and charred scars. The tree is extraordinarily beautiful.
I was in New York this past week receiving radiation treatments to destroy the remnants of a large, but thankfully benign, tumor that was removed from my brain earlier this year. The treatments only took about half an hour each morning so my wife and I had the rest of each day to wander the streets of the big city and see things. As we walked onto the grounds of the memorial park at Ground Zero, we saw the beautiful little tree. Its sweet and powerful spirit was almost palpable. People were placing flowers beside it. Others would place their hand lovingly on the bark with tears in their eyes. They were remembering those they’d loved and lost. They were being comforted and healed by the message of this beautiful little tree that had passed through pain and horror and had yet managed to become something vibrant, healthy, and beautiful. They could see and feel that, because of its trials, it had become more than it could ever have been before it traveled that charred and painful road.
Our own healing journeys are often long and painful. Those we minister to as healers are often going through things that are very difficult. Those difficulties aren’t just physical, they are often spiritual and emotional as well. Healing isn’t just about giving the right medicine or the best herb. True healing often requires a much deeper level of care. It requires a foundation of nourishing, natural foods, a low-stress, and peaceful life, and the healing balm of caring and loving hearts and hands.
Like the little Survivor Tree, those who have passed through difficult trials are uniquely able to comfort and care for others experiencing similar difficulties. Such healers, whether they be herbalists, doctors, or just loving friends and family, can offer a perspective and a hope that can only be attained through trying experiences. A man struggling to keep his head above water in the raging rapids of a torrential trial will be more comforted and inspired by one standing on the far bank who has successfully navigated those trials than by one standing on the bank behind him cheering him on from a position of safety and inexperience.
My own experiences this year have been extraordinarily difficult in some ways and yet they pale in comparison to what many have gone through and are going through. In spite of the cost, the things I’ve learned about myself and the empathy I’ve acquired for the difficulties that others are experiencing are precious to me and I would gladly go through those tough experiences again rather than lose those insights.
I find that if we are willing to look deep into ourselves and use our trials as proving grounds and learning experiences, the result can be extraordinarily worthwhile. In the book of Isaiah, the Lord describes beautifully His role in this world and the help and rewards He offers to those who are suffering trials while enlisting His help to get through them.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. (Isaiah 61:1-3)
Friends, I invite you all to look forward instead of backward; to reach upward toward hope and healing rather than to hang your heads in sorrow; to really look inside yourselves and see the amazing and unique resource you can be to others due to your experiences with trial, grief, and pain. This isn’t a process you accomplish by yourself. On that journey, allow others to help you, to bind up your wounds, and heal you with their loving hearts and hands. Let the hand of the Lord trim away things that don’t matter or that are holding you back. Allow Him to replace them with new growth that will make you trees of righteousness. It takes time. Be patient with yourselves. It can be a long path, but the fruit at the end is wonderful.
To the extent that we do this, I believe we too can become “Survivor Trees”, trees of righteousness, the plantings of the Lord. And, as others see our scars…and our smiles, they too can be comforted, encouraged, strengthened and healed by our empathy, experience, and example.
I’m grateful to all of you for your prayers, thoughts, and kind words this year. You’ve been a tremendous blessing to me. Don’t underestimate your power to do good and bless others. Don’t underestimate the value of your own experiences, your own trials, and failures; your own joys and triumphs. They make you who you are and give you a unique capacity to understand, love, and serve others that are having difficulties of their own. Ashes are evidence of past pain and loss, but they can also be an extraordinary and vital nutrient for new growth. Don’t deprive yourself of the blessing they can be to you and to others.
God Bless you all.
Dr. Patrick Jones
The HomeGrown Herbalist School of Botanical Medicine
Thank you. This was a beautiful and true profession of faith. I spent my growing years from 8 to 18 going through tremendous loss, hardship and pain. People, wonderful people, helped me when I thought I could not survive. I am now 76 and I routinely think of those wonderful people with love and gratitude. They made it possible for me to survive and later flourish. I learned my lessons and I found my faith. I always try to be there for those in pain.
Arlene I have no doubt that your presence in their lives is a blessing. Thank-you for using the strength you gained from bearing your own burdens to help lift the burdens of others in need.
Thank you Doc, & God bless you!
Thank-you Joyce.
Thank you for sharing! This spoke to my heart on so many levels.
I visited for Thanksgiving and left sea water and purple/blue orchard, as an offering. This is the first I’ve heard or read, through tears, of the SURVIVOR pear tree.
May the coming year be peaceful and kind. Prayers continue. MERRY CHRISTMAS
My visit was when the towers fell, not this year.
Thank-you for taking the time to share your experience Jennifer. The little tree is a treasure. I didn’t see anything in New York that I thought was more important.
The timing and words of encouragement and wisdom that you share in each message are so healing to mind, body, and spirit. Thank you for sharing your life and your love with each of us. May we each pass it on in our own daily encounters with hurting people.
I hope each of us will. Think what the world might be like if we did. :0)
Such a beautiful piece of writing and about such a wonder! I hadn’t heard of this tree before… but a symbolic gift from Gaia for sure. Thank you… and yes, we are all healers if we choose to be. Thank you 🙏
I’d not heard of it either. It’s a lovely little treasure.
Thank you, this is very useful information. Heartwarming and good for introspecting. I need some pear leaves right now after having inflammation from COVID.
The leaves are mostly diuretic. The inner bark is the anti-inflammatory.
This is what I used for Covid inflammation: https://homegrownherbalist.net/product/joint-support-tincture/
Wonderful words at a time of deep pain and transition. Thank you for sharing and for your love and encouragement to so many. Christmas Blessings to you and your family.
Sometimes deep pain is the best fuel for important transitions.
Thank you Doc
Thank you so much for mentioning the survivor tree. I didn’t know about it.
We knew someone who never made it out of one of the buildings. We know someone else who should have been there, but at the last moment decided to splurge on a two-week honeymoon, and was just starting the second week on that Tuesday.
I always enjoy your writings. This one brought me to tears. Beaten but not defeated, scarred but still growing. Lots of lessons there.
What a beautiful message. Thank you for sharing. God bless you on your healing journey.🙏🏼
Thanks Doc! Nice video very timely. Wishing you and yours a wonderful and very MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Be well Doc!!!
Peace, Love & Light!
Thank you, Doc Jones, for sharing your deeply personal Christmas message of inspiration, hope, healing and blessed perspective. It is sometimes difficult to think of finding joy in all things, but the healing power of the Lord to take us from the ashes of our lives to grace – to grow the roots of a vibrant, thriving future – is the metaphor this precious pear tree gifts to us all.
Blessings to you and your family.
You and yours are in my thoughts and prayers. The Survival Tree was beautiful. Thank you.
I highly recommend “The Harbinger “ and “The Harbinger II” by Jonathan Kahn. Amazing how he ties 911 together with the pentagon, NY, that special little tree and God’s favor on us. Unique read. Blessings
Thanks Linda. I’ll have a look.
Thank you for your beautiful reflection, Doc. I relate to your experience on two different levels. Twenty years ago, I almost died from a nosocomial infection caught in the hospital during a routine hysterectomy with only an 8% chance of survival. My entire colon was removed to save my life three months before the 9/11 incident. Yes, it did change me in many ways, physically, mentally and spiritually. I learned I wasn’t in control of anything…only God was which was a difficult lesson for a Type A Capricorn business owner to learn! I relate on the second level because my son-in-law survived a metastatic melanoma brain tumor. The oncologists here in Rochester, NY told him he was doomed, so my daughter, who is a nurse, took him to Roswell in Buffalo, NY. They operated on him and saved his life. He had the same type of radiation to his brain as you are having, but he only needed it once. That was over three years ago and he is doing well. God Bless you and your family. Thank you for all that you do! I hope to take your course, as I believe it will benefit me and my family.
I’m glad that you and your son-in-law have survived your illnesses. We’d love to have you in the course. With experiences like yours you would be a real blessing to people as an herbalist.
https://homegrownherbalist.net/about-the-school/
They usually only need to do the Gamma Knife procedure once. In my case they opted to do a lower intensity five times rather than the usual intensity once. This was because my remnants were intimately associated with my optic nerve and some other important things. They didn’t want to damage those structures so they backed of on intensity and just did it a few more times.
Thank you for these deep and touching thoughts. It is hard to keep going after a terrible loss. Life just doesn’t ever feel right. This is not what God had planned for humanity, and thankfully, this is not all there is to look forward to. One day, Moshiach/Messiah will return and pain, suffering, death… will be no more.
And thank you for not repeating the media and government mantra. Indeed, what happened on September 11, 2001, did happen because of evil men – but most of them were not the evil men the media held up for all to see. Most of them were/are in our own government. Will they ever be held to account? Will the history books tell the truth about who orchestrated those events and what they did? Kristina Borgeson, of The Whistleblower Newsroom, has done quite a few interviews with those who are still working to get the truth out about what happened.
Thank you so much for your message. A year ago today, I entered the hospital for Leukemia treatments. My treatments ended in June, but it’s just been recently that I’m starting to realize what I went through. Your message helped me put my thoughts together, and look forward with gratitude to the future. Thank you!
The lessons sometimes don’t come while we’re in the pounding surf. Sometimes they come later when we’re on the beach looking back at the big picture.
I hope things go well for you and that your treatments are successful.
Reading your written thoughts is a blessing to me. I usually struggle for the right words, but Thank You will do for now. You are SO right about struggles and the help of the Lord and others to “lift up others”. @
Thank-you AnnDe. I appreciate you taking time to read it.
Doc Jones, you are a many-faceted jewel in God’s hands. You can be funny and quirky, but also deeply insightful and profound. Thank you for being so transparent; it’s a great gift to all of us. May God continue to heal your body,–> and bless you with continued good health, with more jokes (laughter is the best medicine!), with more grandchildren, with more wisdom to pass along to others, and more great herbal formulas.
Merry Christmas and Happy 2022 🙂
You’re very kind Carol. But I would argue that we are all many-faceted jewels in God’s hands. I think that like a chunk of rock takes some cleaning, chiseling and polishing to become a gem, all of us will experience things in this life that will refine and improve us…and many of them will be difficult.
C.S. Lewis wrote a beautiful metaphor for this process:
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
This brought healing tears and I thank you so much for both your story and the pear tree’s.
My husband of 48 years was diagnosed with an untreatable brain tumor that appeared and rapidly grew to 15 cms after October 2020.
Diagnosed Feb. 28th, he was dead by May 20th. I haven’t cried much because our family of 7 and 26 grandkids (so far), came right away and we all worked together caring for him at home. It was a real honor and a blessing. He always knew who everyone was, even being half paralyzed and unable to speak, progressively getting worse. He was so grateful and cooperative! He even had a tiny sweet smile on his face while still at our house for 15 hours!
Our youngest son (27), the only one still at home, and I, have so few regrets; we aren’t beset with sadness. Of course all of us miss him a lot. He worked from home like you Doc and we spent a lot of time with our kids including homeschooling for 30 years and performing music together as a family! He appeared to be the picture of health until just before the diagnosis and he did a lot of work on our 2 acres and business. So as you can imagine, we feel swamped!
God taught me to be aware now of so many who are alone after losing a spouse. I just had no idea before, what that is like. I am grateful for this awakening of much greater compassion and care after experiencing such an outpouring for our family. God is good and He is taking such good care of me. We actually look forward to the special days and memories! I even told our kids on Thanksgiving that they are his legacy and he lives on, for me, in them. I am so grateful for a large family to be with as I continue my journey here on earth.
I pray you stay tumor free and get all healed up!, Have a blessed and Merry Christmas and a great New Year! Thanks for sharing!
Leslie thank-you for sharing your story. What a beautiful blessing you’ve received…and become. Submitting to trials and harvesting the precious fruits of wisdom from their thorny briars is sometimes a difficult and painful process. It sounds to me like you have mastered the art and, as a result, are becoming precisely what God has in mind for you. I hope you and those lucky children and grandchildren have a sweet Christmas. I have no doubt that your good husband will be close by smiling and laughing and cherishing you and your family like he always has.
Your journey is healing for me. I’m not the type of person to write a comment. But felt a deep gratitude to. I opened your email earlier and kept it on my iPad to read later. And as I read it a 3 something this morning healing tears ran down the side of my face. See it seems as if I have not been able to cry. For years I have been going through a painful marriage. God is seeing me through! Thanks for your journey and being you. Many many blessings…Doc
I believe one of the principle reasons we are born into this world is to learn to love and serve imperfect people…including ourselves. It’s sometimes a tough road. God bless you for continuing to love and serve a fellow that hasn’t yet learned how blessed he is to have you. Or, maybe he does know and just hasn’t learned how to consistently and effectively express it yet.
God bless you as you leave your veterinary practice and really immerse yourself in the clinic. Today I remember my daughters death in 1988. As tragic as it was I know she is in heaven and I take solice in knowing I will see her again. Ironically her favorite fruit was pear, perhaps there is simply a coincidence with your story. I am glad your health is improving as I still require your teachings of wisdom. I wish you and yours a merry Christmas and happy New Years.
I appreciate your kind and wise words. Life is a trial for each of us; tailor-made to help us turn to God to help us overcome. You are amazing in your outlook and your ability to articulate what is in your heart in an uplifting and humorous way. I am grateful for this gift you have–it has enriched my life as I continue to learn from you. May God’s richest blessings be showered down on you and your family as you continue to heal and reach out to lift others. You and yours are in my prayers.
Dr. Jones I read that ,it was beautiful. My daughter and husband are in your schooling you are giving, and they enjoy it, learning how to help others. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours, I pray you can live many more years, so people can learn from you.
Thank you for sharing this – your personal experience and the survivor tree – beautifully expressed!
Thank you Doc for your words,
My journey of trials had led me many places. Some good some bad. Some out of desperation. I have been led down the path to more natural helps to my own ails. I have been learning all my life without knowing it. I am so blessed to have found your site, wisdom and help. I hope to keep learning and growing not really for others but for myself. If I get to pass along something to someone that helps them, I will. Thank you for your willingness to share your knowledge and love of what God has created for all of us to use. If only we’d, people in general, only look beyond the fame, glory and money, we could see how much God has put here for us to use. Glad you are still here to help teach those of us willing to learn and listen. Best of luck in your future. I pray that we all can one day say thank you to those who have touched our lives in person.
Glad your still here.
Thank you, Doc Jones. Beautiful and emotional post about that
beautiful, resilient tree. May you heal very quickly. God Bless you and your beautiful family.
Thank-you Virginia.