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EDITORS’ PICK
A Transformative Tree
I was a 20-year-old college sophomore in 1971, when I suddenly became acutely mentally ill. More specifically, I entered the nightmarish world of full-blown schizophrenia. I was wracked with hallucinatory pain and anguish and unable to think or function. Every waking moment became a living hell; there was no escape from it, day or night. After a couple of months as a couch zombie, my mother, bless her heart, took me to Lexington Gardens, a large nursery and greenhouse. There, I saw a bonsai tree sitting on a bench in the corner. It was a perfect little tree with nice green moss. That tree awakened something in me; it reached into my soul, grabbed me, and said, “Johnny, hold on, you’re still in there.” So, in spite of the cacophony in my head, and the pain and impairment, I forced myself to try to grow a bonsai tree. After several months, and in fits and starts, my illness gradually went into remission, and I was able to pick up the pieces and go on with my life. Fast-forward 49 years, and after helping to run a family business, I’m now retired and have turned my lifelong passion into a small bonsai nursery. Bonsai isn’t just a hobby, it’s an art form, and even a way of life that helped to save mine.
John Ramsdell
Verona Island, Maine
Remarkable Rebirth
After reading Editor at Large Hank Will’s “Feral Bees, Take 2” editorial (August/September 2019), I had to share some positive experiences of
