Think Like a Tree
by Karen I. Shragg

Soak up the sun
Affirm life’s magic
Be graceful in the wind
Stand tall after a storm
Feel refreshed after it rains
Grow strong without notice
Be prepared for each season
Provide shelter to strangers
Hang tough through a cold spell
Emerge renewed at the first signs of spring
Stay deeply rooted while reaching for the sky
Be still long enough to
hear your own leaves rustling.

My favorite tree stands majestically in our front yard, right outside the window of our office. It’s an oak, but I’m not sure which variety. Perhaps a pin oak. I spread seed on the ground beneath its great height for the birds. The other morning as I was completing this daily task,  I happened to look straight up. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue with not a cloud in it and I knew I had to capture the beauty of its scores of twisted, gnarly branches.

I am really seeing it for the first time. We moved to our new home just last April and within a few weeks the trees had leafed out, so I had no opportunity to study it. In summer it’s beautifully lush and green and its dense foliage provides good shade coverage. Devoid of its leafy covering the tree’s structure is laid bare for all to admire. Limb after limb, branch upon branch, all intimately intertwined and connected to the mother tree trunk like so many arms and fingers.

Its bountiful branches provide shelter and perching spots for the various species of birds that inhabit my yard. Woodpeckers tap at its bark. Squirrels race up and down and around and around its mighty trunk.

The poem that I found [above] seems to say it all. Why can’t we all be more like trees? Isn’t Mother Nature grand?

After note: The birds are: Blue Jay, Tufted Titmouse, Cardinal, Red-Bellied Woodpecker. Exactly what kind of squirrel; unknown.