Trees

I like trees...No. I love trees. Especially old ones that have lived long and weathered much. Now, I don't know one from another, most of the time. I can tell an evergreen from a deciduous. I can tell a birch from a sycamore, and a pine from a cedar, but past that, I'm pretty much clueless. It doesn't matter to me, really, how little I know about them; I love them just the same. (Wish it were that easy with people.) I love the beauty in their branches, and the microcosm that each single tree represents. One tree is a small ecosystem, all by itself. My husband told me a long time ago that I should've been a druid. Maybe I was. Maybe I still am.

My favorites are the deciduous trees, because they visibly change with the seasons. I love to see them full of leaves and critters in spring and summer. I love to see their skeletons emerging in the autumn as the bright leaves blow away in the wind, revealing nests of birds long fled south. In the winter, with the trees' branches coated in snow, I like to see the abandoned nests taken over and expanded by squirrels and the new nests of the winter birds. The continual change is visible proof that life continues within the tree, and gives a sense that the tree itself is a moving thing, though its roots be planted deep in the ground. We see deciduous trees in all their everchanging glory, no matter the season.

Where I come from, most of the trees lean to the north. This is because of the predominant winds from the south that are always blowing, at least a little bit. The trees just grow that way. In eastern Oklahoma, the part referred to as 'Green Country', the angle may not be as steep, but there's a definite northward tilt. This tilt becomes much more noticeable as you move westward toward the plains, and the trees become fewer and further between. It's as if they have a harder time holding themselves straight up without other trees around them to break down the force of the wind. I guess you could say people are a lot like trees in that respect. We stand up to life a lot better with a little forest of others around us for protection and support.

To my friends and family, I'm glad you're in my little forest.