This evening Mia was reading "The Giving Tree" to Trux, and I really felt this part:
But the boy stayed away for a long time... and the tree was sad. And then one day the boy came back and the tree shook with joy and she said, "Come, Boy, climb up my trunk and swing from my branches and be happy."
Most of you know by now that I grew up wild and free on acres of land Kansas. Some of you know and probably remember how my brothers, Nathan and Noah, and I lived in trees. Literally. There are three trees that are really a part of me and who I am.
Where I grew up there is an over abundance of Osage Orange trees.
Around my house they were planted in rows, similar to the above picture, and used to tack fences to, "fence posts". Our climbing tree was a fence post in the front yard along the front property line and across on the other side of the fence was another "hedge apple tree". The branches of these trees intertwined probably a good 25 feet above the ground, with limbs thick enough that we could go back and forth from tree to tree. Oh the secrets that tree holds. I vividly remember soon after Nathan's 2nd brain cancer surgery, his head was sutured together from ear to ear, he wanted very badly to be up in the tree. My brother Noah and I boosted him on up and we sat there for awhile, high above the world... however seeing as Nathan had just recently had brain surgery he was weak and his balance was very off and he couldn't get back down. I think this is one of the few times my mom truly freaked out on us. Looking back I totally understand.
When I was hurt or upset, I often fled to the outstretched branches of that tree. When it was stifling hot and the parents insisted on not using the air conditioning till July, we'd retreat to the shady branches of that tree, the higher you go the better the breeze you know.
The second tree I have a relationship with is the huge hedge apple in the back. From it hung our tree swing. Of course there were many, many childhood hours spent on it... or pushing it... depending on where you were in the pecking order of swingers. I actually looked at this tree while I was home over this past weekend, really looked at it with my grownup eyes. It has grown taller and thicker, as trees are apt to do. I went and laid my hands on it's rough, orangy bark... I'd like to think that the tree happy. I know I was.
And for those of you that have no earthly idea why a tree would be called a hedge apple tree and what a hedge apple is...
And no, you don't eat them, they taste like earwax.
I like being sentimental. I also like climbing trees. We had a pretty awesome tree in our backyard that we would climb all the time. Childhood is something we never really cherish until it's gone, huh? It all makes sense why grown ups would say "You'll be grown-up before you know it." Too bad we didn't believe them enough to cherish those times more.
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