Tree Secrets

Two boys,  sitting in a tree,  smiles on their faces and feeling like the only two people in a crowded park. A sunny day,  full of hope and promise.   A celebration is happening on the ground but up in that tree memories are being made.

I know that's true because when I saw that tree it brought back so many memories for me of days gone by.   We had the most wonderful trees when we were growing up,  perfect for daydreaming, story telling, plans that we hoped would turn into adventures and reading.   The hours would float away like white puffy clouds,  just moving along at a lazy speed while we were up in that tree.   Secrets,  they were also being shared, a bit at a time.

Some days the tree was to be shared with a friend.   Never a problem.   Whoever got there first was always happy to have the company of a friend.   That's when the adventures would form in our minds, with the hopes of maybe,  just maybe carrying them out.   Secrets were big with friends also.  After sharing a secret or telling of a difficult time at home we always climbed down feeling better,  knowing that we were not alone and tha the tree would keep our thoughts safe and private.   My favorite times though were when I was alone.  

There is nothing more magical and wonderful than to take your book and climb up that tree and find the perfect limb for leaning back on and reading away a summer afternoon.  If your lucky no one will know where you are and come looking for you.   It is a process though,  the branch has to be low enough so that you don't need help getting to it and it has to have a wide enough limb for a comfortable sit.   You need to be able to tilt your head back so that every once in awhile you can look away from your book and look up...look up at the leaves and the sky and sun and feel the warm that they  offer.   The important part is to get a good limb on a tree with lots of leaves,  you can sometimes even look down at the people passing by and they don't know your even there.   It's like a secret for just you and it makes you feel powerful,  like you put one over on them.

I grew up in the city, on a major road going from one town to the next.   The problem was we had more cement sidewalks than trees.  I loved the city streets.  They brought there own kind of entertainment but that's for another day.   In the 60's though we were more fortunate than today's city kids.   We had hugh parks all over and we had the Salem Willows,  all of which had very lovely maple, chestnut,  weeping willows and oak trees.   Some of us (not me) even had a good tree in our yard.   Also,  there were trees planted right in there with that cement.  You needed to get one of those on a side street though and that's where you could do some good people watching.   Back then I could hop up in a tree without any worry about breaking a limb (mine) or falling out of my tree.   I miss those days.

When I saw those boys in the tree I was once again reminded of the charm of childhood.   I could tell from the smiles on their faces that they to loved the adventure and excitement of being up there on their own.  They felt a contectedness to each other and to that tree and I hope that someday those trees will still be there for a another group of children to build dreams in.  

I'm going to keep my eyes open  for a good tree for Liam.   We now live in a rural area and we are surrounded by trees.   Perhaps I'll look for one with a really good limb and tell Liam of my tree adventures so he'll think about having a few of his own.   In the meantime,  I'll keep my tree dreams alive knowing that my love of nature might just have started somewhere in one of those big city willow trees, reading a book and keeping secrets,  knowing that all was safe,  wrapped up in those branches.