HAPPY SUNDAY - FOR THE LOVE OF TREES

 

I am grateful for the trees in our small garden. We have lost two in our time here. They were already on the way out when we moved in, but we were still able to keep them for several years with careful inspections from an arborist. When the branches started dying off and didn't return, and the inside it started to become hollow, we were told it would become unsafe. It was very, very tall and we certainly didn't want it to fall on our neighbor's house.  Another neighbor told us that there was one next to our favorite tree, that had actually fallen on the corner of our house a couple of years before we moved in. 

We still have plans to replace one of them where we lost our favorite. We had hoped to get one this year, but it didn't work out. Hopefully that will be next year now.

The one I am sharing today is an American Beech.

My thanks to Jim Yerman for this very touching, loving poem.

If I could choose one type of love for two people to share, that would allow them throughout their life together to be happy...to rejoice...one love above all others...then tree love would be my choice.

Tree love begins when two seeds of love are planted together...how it happens...no one really knows...but once planted side by side, like two trees, their love begins to grow.

They grow so close together their limbs are always touching and anyone who sees them understands the love they share between them...as they're forever holding hands.

Individually they are independent and wonderful but together...each other they enhance...watch them in the wind...see how beautifully they dance.

Watch them weather any storm together...watch them feel each other's pain...watch them share their joy and laughter...watch them play out in the rain.

Watch if one tree teeters in the wind in a sudden summer squall...how the other tree is there to catch them...and will not let them fall.

Watch if one tree is filled with sorrow...is ever nervous or afraid...how the other tree is there with arms outstretched to offer the comfort of its shade.

Watch how there is no jealousy between them...no feelings they have to hide...if one tree is taller or more colorful than the other...there is only delight...and joy...and pride.

Watch how, no matter how old and wrinkled they become...they remain young in their hearts...and how their roots have grown so intertwined they can't be pulled apart.

The road to joy and happiness...that's an easy choice for me...yes, if I could choose one path to true love...then tree love it would be.