A little over 2 years ago, my Tales from the Garden article
was all about how much I love trees, especially the Cottonwoods and Mesquites
that I am lucky to live amongst here in Arivaca.
But after writing last month about the idea of
planting a tree for a child’s special occasion, I began thinking about where
and when my “love affair” with trees began.
I think I have remembered some pretty good clues:
My
early childhood was spent growing up on the south side of Chicago, on a typical
urban street lined with small brick bungalows and small trees.
One of my friends lived in the house
right behind us, with a huge deciduous tree in their back yard, and I loved
every chance I got to play under it.
In addition, their street had a big curve in it, unlike
anywhere else in the neighborhood, lined with tall trees that arched overhead.
How I wished my house had a shady green
canopy over it!
Every Sunday, my
parents took us to a little church that was located near the Calumet River,
with a giant Weeping Willow tree growing nearby.
I don’t remember as much abut my church and Sunday school
experiences as much as I remember how that tree’s branches arched over to the
ground in a huge circle around it.
I can still see it clearly
in my mind’s eye 60 years later, how much I looked forward to the weekly visit
to “my tree”, and how it felt to stand under that green- walled paradise.
When
I was 10 years old, my parents had a home built in a suburban neighborhood in
northern Indiana, on ½ acre of land that once was a farmer’s field.
Other than two small trees on one edge
of the property, there was just a sea of lawn all around the big new house.
However, there was a forest across the
street, with acres of trees somehow untouched by a century of farming, and
filled with browsing deer, rabbits, raccoons, chipmunks, and an occasional fox.
I wrote about that forest in my August 2020 Connection article, because it was
a place that my heart and soul grew so much.
I guess
it’s no wonder that I’m in love with trees, feel at home in their shadow, and
can’t imagine living without them around me.
Perhaps
reading this has made you think about a tree or a forest you remember from your
own childhood, and perhaps you are reading this while sitting under a tree in
your own yard. If so, please look
up and give it a smile.
Photo credits:
Cottonwoods along Arivaca Creek: Emily Bishton
Weeping Willow by Claude Monet: public domain
Decisuous forest: Nicholas T. Lofty, Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
