What a great prompt from Tyrean Martinson’s book, again! As I am writing this, I can’t switch off my screen, of course, but after having received the topic, YOU can!
When I was a kid and a teenager, I LOVED climbing trees. In front of our apartment building, there was an old cherry tree with a wide crown and – come the season – tiny, bitter-sweet cherries. We kids loved the tree, and we often turned it into the center of our activities. How often did half of the neighborhood’s kids sit in the tree. But sometimes, I would just be perched up there all by myself, in the highest branch fork possible, and get swayed by the wind. It was so calming and peaceful.
One day, somebody decided that the tree had to go. We kids tried to protest – but children’s voices rarely get heard. I’ll never forget the day when we returned from school, and our lovely cherry tree was gone. No more tree climbing in our neighborhood, as the other trees didn’t lend themselves for it. Little did the adults know that we children would have the upper hand, in the end …
Grabbing each branch for the climb can be taken in a different way, as yet. As we head for our life goals, sometimes what seems to be a detour on our direct path might be an extra-branch on our journey that lends it more safety, more dexterity, more experience. Grabbing each branch can be a person’s honest support that we didn’t expect. It can be a motivational group that is placed in our way to pass through a difficult period in life. It could be anything …
We need to be aware that life’s branches are as versatile as a tree’s. Some may break as we try for their scant support. With others we may realize that they look beautiful but are treacherous and not leading in our direction. As we climb, it is extremely important that we search for good foothold as our hands are searching for the next branch to hold on to and to pull ourselves up. Little by little. If we leave out one branch because it looks as if it wouldn’t bring us far enough, we might be in for a bad surprise. Leaving out a small step can be our downfall farther up. Leaps and bounds are great for squirrels – they were made for this. Humans not so much.
The last time I returned to the apartment building of my childhood, I smiled to myself as I saw what had come of the effort we neighborhood kids put in after we had been let down by some adults’ decision. We had planted cherry pits where none of the grown-ups would have suspected it. Almost 30 years later, there was another cherry tree, thriving because of all the bushes around which landscapers had planted back in the day. It will take a while yet – but one day, I hope, there will be another generation of tree climbers, learning how climbing a tree is so similar to reaching for goals in life. Provided, they will learn to switch off THEIR screens and learn that there is so much more to life.
I was a tree climber when I was a kid in Michigan. I would climb high in a tall oak tree, sit on my favorite branch and gaze at the waves on the Saginaw Bay while the wind rocked me. I never knew anyone else who did this.
How fun, Jan! I didn’t have such an extraordinary view. But I kept imagining I was at the mast of a sailing ship.
I love how you used tree climbing as a metaphor for life. I was a tree climber in Utica, NY back in the 40s. I was usually alone and would sit up there for what seemed like hours. It wasn’t too many years after I left that my tree was gone, too, replaced by more apartment buildings. I remember feeling so sad that other children wouldn’t be able to have the same experiences I had. Thank you for rekindling some of my favorite memories.
Thank YOU, Pat, for sharing your very similar memories! Happy weekend!
I was a tree climber as a kid in Enumclaw, Washington. I had favorite trees for climbing and trees for sitting in while daydreaming, thinking, or watching the neighborhood. We don’t have any good trees to climb where I live now, but I didn’t stop climbing until the age of 35. I wish I hadn’t stopped.
Funny that you are mentioning it – I wonder whether I still could. As a child I was kind of fearless even though knowing some of the dangers. As a grown-up, my fears of a fall and its consequences stop me from such adventure …
I too was a tree climber in the Bronx, NYC. Yes there were still trees back then. It was the big oak in the middle of an empty lot and a haven for we kids to climb, swing from a rope, and just spend time. I also hid from my mom when I didn’t want to come in.
It too eventually was removed for more two family houses and the whole large lot of almost a block was returned to grown ups.
What kid hasn’t climbed a tree? Also knew of two who died from falling out of theirs.
Oh my, Joan! That must have been some terrible experience – I only knew of kids who broke an arm or their clavicle. We swung from ropes, too. Blissful childhood days in trees …