TREEVOLUTION!

Sell your cleverness
and buy bewilderment.
-Rumi

I opened the Shelby County Reporter while sitting in Waffle House this morning, and to my surprise I saw my name in there. They said they’d call before they’d run anything, but I don’t really mind them just putting it in there. Even though I wrote this weeks ago it was a fresh surprise to see it in the paper. Life is revealing the power and symbolism of trees in my life, and as it does, I see it’s been doing this for years. “To be a tree would be fine by me…”, “Tree’s are free because they know where they stand…”
This one’s for Dad, of course, because he spoke to me through the tree. For me it’s a metaphorical/mystical/metaphysical attraction to trees at this moment in my life. It’s that time of year when you can’t look anywhere, in any direction, without seeing at least a few leaves blowing in the wind. It’s getting harder to walk anywhere without hearing a crunch each step, and I love that. Crunch crunch crunch, there I go.
On the other hand, Brooks has been getting into the spirit of tree’s very deeply in a much more hands-on way, and so this is very much for him as well. One of the great things about trees are that they have integral parts that make up the whole, just like everything else I suppose. Tree’s are just so smooth and simple in the way they fit together, the way they embody a successful, divine, organic entity like they do. The roots, the trunk, the branches, the leaves: they are all so full of insight and symbolism individually and collectively. Same basic parts, and yet no two trees are exactly the same. Hmmm, there’s something universal laced in there, a motif of nature. Perhaps there’s a reason why I’m more caught up in the leaves given where I’m in my life right now, whereas Brooks is setting his focus on the planting and the preparation. He is a cultivator. I thought planting a tree was as simple as that, but after watching Brooks take soil samples, read through books, plan and plan, I see there is very much an art to it. Hopefully I’ll be able to learn a thing or two from him this tree planting season. Maybe I can get him to put together a real simple “how to plant a tree step-by-step” piece so we can all do just the same in our own neck of the woods. Maybe we can even print out the steps and pass ‘em around. Knowledge is power, and more trees, and more oxygen.
I want to make a t-shirt that says PLANT MORE TREES! across the front of it. Green maybe, with bold white letters. I don’t think anyone is against the idea, most people just don’t think of it that often I suppose. We can change that. I bet if more people had a piece of paper in their hand that told them in real easy terms how to go about finding a tree and planting/transplanting it, then more people would. We can help bring more trees into the world. Tree’s help everyone. PLANT MORE TREES! Let us begin- the TREEVOULTION!

#

“Unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” John 12:24

Standing here under a tree I know my father planted years before I was born, I pause to appreciate the mysterious nature of change. As I watch the leaves turn from green, to yellow, to red, to crunchy brown, I notice nature’s subtle clues that summer has passed, fall has arrived, and winter is coming.

There is a crispness to the air. Cool breezes send golden leaves fluttering to the ground. As they do, I wonder if Dad ever thought about me standing here under his tree when he planted it all those years ago. I wonder what this place looked like back then? Did Dad ever imagine his child yet to come would one day be standing here under his tree, now fully grown, wondering where he is?

We don’t often give ourselves time to think about these sorts of things. We use our watches to stay on schedule, but trees are hourglasses of a different order. Trees have the power to stay in touch from generation to generation.

Even though every one of these leaves will fall into the ground and die, a part of this tree is the same today as it was when my father first planted it. The roots are deeper, the trunk is thicker, the branches are longer, but it is the same tree. There is something I can sense through this tree that yokes Dad and I together through space and time.

No matter how many things seem to change around here, how many neighbors join the valley or how many new cell phone towers go up, there is something eternal coursing through this place that is deeper than all that. The pulse of life, the invisible force that lets this tree know its time to shed its leaves, is the same force that lets it know when its time to grow them back.

Soon all the leaves will be gone, but the ever present, eternal aspect of nature will be here to comfort me still. My connection to this land and my father are not threatened by the cold. They are a part of the cold, just as they are a part of the warmth that will come again next spring.

Fall awakens a zest for the eternal and reminds me that the hardest lesson in life to learn is to learn you have to let go. Without winter there would be no summer. Without fall there would be no spring. Without death there would be no life.

So you know what we should do? We should all go plant a tree this year. Not for ourselves, but for our children and grandchildren yet to come. It may be years down the road, but when the day comes, your tree will be a portal back to you. It will be a blessed window into nature’s eternal continuum, just like this simple, beautiful tree is for me, winter, spring, summer, and fall.

Cole Suttle - Columbiana, AL

http://shelbycountyreporter.com/articles/2006/11/08/opinion/opin03.txt

#

(See my goal was to open with a Bible quote and then never mention God, but talk about all the things that God takes care of. How did I do?)

(Thanks to Lauren for the logo. It's still a work in progress, or a tree in growth... get it? I told you tree's work on many different levels.)