I just walked inside after a long, late afternoon walk with Andy.  It was a lovely walk along the dirt road at the top of the ridge on which we live.  The air was colder and damper than it had been before a night and a day of rain, a night and day that have brought us from Indian Summer to Almost Winter.

     During the walk, I had a special time with a little tree.  While Andy paused to write down one of his many ideas, I stopped too and stood gazing into the woods at the side of the road. 

     Soon my eyes rested on the slenderest of trees.  The trunk–if you could call it that–was only as thick as a small tree branch.  It was as if someone had picked up one of the many branches lying in the leaves by the road, and stuck it in the ground.  The ‘trunk’ of this tree rose from the ground toward 10:00 and then veered sharply toward 1:00.  Its shift in direction was marked by a distinct ‘elbow.’ 

      Given the little maple’s slight stature, I was surprised to note its full crown of leaves.  This  fragile-looking tree sprouted numerous stems at the top, all of them tipped with reddening leaves fluttering in unison.

     The lines of the little maple pleased me.  A very slender, angled line on the way up, with a soft-looking, light and leafy cloud on top.  I marvelled that this very tiny tree, a mere stick in the ground, had generated so many leaves;  this tree couldn’t have been more than a baby.  The tree may have looked frail, but it was strong enough.  It had all it needed to live–to withstand wind, cold, rain, and snow. 

     This little tree, so common, so ordinary, and such a wonder.–April Moore

This entry was posted on Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 8:56 am and is filed under Celebrating our beautiful Earth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.