Find a nice branch and lay down in comfort and shade, bring a good book and life up there rivaled the luxury of a home. We were small and my friends and I loved trees.
The tree across the street is almost greening, something that happened almost overnight. A sign of what is to come: Spring, this indecisive time here when snow mingles with days of warmth and sun. My neighbor cut some of the tree limbs and this gives me an open view but I miss the great canopy of green that swayed with the wind and kept our neighbors life private.
In the back, beyond the deck, the aspen is growing long little pods of brown and small pendants, soft with a white fur, ready to open and show me the leaves. Our two collard doves prune their wings and stare at each other. Oh the love they express … their sound brings me to heaven as they fly in the Aspen.
All over town the trees are starting to bud. Very shyly at first but later on they will graciously extend their umbrellas and their call of the forest. My friend lives in LA. She raves about one tree facing the window of her apartment. It is her connection with the gifts of nature and she tells me “The tree is happy now to be green.” Its presence as she comes home from work and opens her window is at the root of her joy.
All over the world, trees are big or rachitic, full of shade or full of insects, full of birds or full or animals, tall with a life that started so often before ours. Some trees on earth witnessed our beginnings and still sing it seems, moving with the moon and the breeze.
They rise above us, all alone or in enchanting forests. They supply dead leaves to protect the roots of our plants in winter, timber to build with; and rise in the sun, each one a lone bearer of life for a shady rest on the road or a place to hide if you want to be queen but not to be seen.
Copyright Micheline Brierre 2010
i've been enjoying your writings..............so glad you're blogging
ReplyDelete...........you voice should be heard and your heart needs to speak
Brenda
How wonderful. great blog. great writing on trees.
ReplyDeleteI used to sit as a child and think about being a tree.
I would look at all of the different kind, in all of the different
seasons and I would think which one I would be if I
could be a tree.
As a child, I had a favorite tree on the farm. We didn't have many trees because every available place was filled with rows of cotton, melons, corn, or barley. Looking South you could see for miles because the land was so flat. Looking North you could see the flat sandy mesa spilling over to the farmland. There were no neighbors.
ReplyDeleteAfter school I would head over to my tree--just big enough to support one person hiding in the middle. The leaves twinkled in the breeze while the hot sun bore down upon the soil. Redwinged blackbirds tweeted their hellos as they flew by. Lumbering caterpillars strolled lazily. Yellow butterflies flitted to their next bloom.
I could dream many adventures in my magical tree. It was MY special lair. No one dared to disturb my reign. Many hours of delight enchanted my daze.
What a wonderful way to welcome the spring in your town. I love trees also and remember the huge poplar trees in front of our apartment when I was a little girl...but I also remember when the city had to cut them down and remove them all because of the root damages they were causing....I was very sad that day and all the days after...the street looked so empty.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy spring renewal, Micheline, in LC
Bye the way the pictures are awesome, as always Barry. I love it, it makes Micheline's writing so beautiful in color.
ReplyDeleteMicheline, in LC
I think this one could have been called contented monkeys too since I bet everyone has a favorite tree in their past. Mine was a ancient California Pepper tree with just the right branch formation for me to lounge there reading as a child on hot summer days. And of course I was invisible except to all the other residents of the tree! We are enjoying our fruiting trees at this time- they are looking like a wedding scene- flowers and perfume everywhere promising the luscious fruit they bear. Our oaks and pines are dusting us with huge yellow clouds of pollen but do you think I am smart enough to keep the windows closed? Not with such perfect temperatures wafting in the spring songs and smells.
ReplyDelete