The Old Tree
The sight of the tree stops you in your tracks. Some things are like that. You’ll be going about your business when some tiny current of energy demands attention and, even though it would be easy to ignore, you’ve learned to heed the call.
She is not tall and stately like her neighbors. She has been twisted and turned by the merciless elements and the ravages of time. An impossibly long root – or maybe it’s her trunk? – stretches along the ground for at least fifteen feet. She hangs over the edge of the rocks with the waters of Cascade Lake sparkling only a few feet below. Like a bonsai she has been sculpted by careful hands, yet you suspect these hands were not human, but those belonging to wind, rain, time.
Her face is turned southward toward the sun, and there her needles glow green in delight. She is peering around the corner past her bigger neighbors for her own sustenance, but also to better see and hear the kids swimming and splashing at the beach.
She has lived here for many years and she knows her days are numbered. But she doesn’t mind. She’ll be content on her solo perch for however long she is allowed.
She has lessons to share with anyone willing to listen. Go, sit near her long, undulating root-trunk and ask her what she knows. She’ll tell you that you’re doing exactly what you should be doing with your life – listening, noticing, learning, appreciating.
And yet, you grow impatient. You have a long hike to finish, after all. So, you stand to stretch your legs. You lay a palm against her bark in gratitude, and then you continue on your way.
She stays behind, and she hides a grin because she sees you have not yet learned the deeper lessons she is here to teach. The biggest life lessons come with time and tenacity. Someday, she knows, you’ll learn that a well-lived life is not about going further, doing more. It’s about less. It’s about stretching until you find the corner of your forest where you feel the warmth of the sun, and then lifting your face to soak in its rays.
*From my San Juan Islands Collection. Cascade Lake, Orcas Island. July 14, 2021.
