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After several days of fasting, an IV, and a boatload of meds, I was up and somewhat going. I don't think I've ever been so glad to be heading home. I was looking forward to spending time with the family and getting 100% healthy. But as soon as I walked into the house, there she was. My little girl saw me and ran into my arms. I loved every moment of it and yet I cringed. My kids had spent the week at Vacation Bible Experience and I could tell my daughter was getting sick. 

In the medieval legal system, the penalties imposed on clergy were far more lenient than those imposed on the rest of the population, because it was believed that clergy should not be subject to civil courts. They worked for God, so they were to be tried by an ecclesiastical court.  

The principle was known, legally, as the "benefit of clergy," and it could mean the difference between life and death. In a secular court, the charges brought against you could mean the gallows. The same charges in an ecclesiastical court might mean a slap on the wrist.  

It probably didn't help that spring had not yet arrived; I tried to picture the tree with a full head of green leaves, but it didn't help. I was about to continue my walk when I noticed that the side of the trunk had split open, exposing evidence of a much younger tree that had been encased deep inside the coarse exterior over time. Was it an absorbed twin, or the younger heart of the same tree?