TIME WITH TREES

As a child I spent my balmy Alabama summers hanging in trees. Without an invitation from anyone, I was drawn to trees like paperclips to a magnet. My parents rented this old, run-down house in a run-down neighborhood, but it had three magnificent climbing-trees in the backyard. Childhood heaven! I didn’t care if the kid next door didn’t want to play with me on a given day…I had my trees. Playing alone didn’t scare me.

Grasping hold of any low-hanging bough with my heel hooked over the top, I would deftly pull myself up onto the rugged appendage. Hand over hand, foot over foot; I would pull myself up and up until I ran out of comfort zone. Instinctively, I knew to test each branch for strength as I ascended, but descending, for some reason, wasn’t always as easy. One couldn’t always go back the way they had come, nevertheless, no adult came running out of the house to instruct me from the ground. I had to figure it out. Cool “seats” were discovered, imaginary rooms appeared for my amusement, and it was there, in my leafy mansion, where my love for nature was born.

Hands, feet, arms, legs, stretched and pulled and reached, working together seamlessly. Unbeknownst to me, I was building coordination, strong muscles, critical thinking, risk assessment and motor skills.

But to me, it was just fun to be free as a breeze exercising my imagination for hours upon hours. In fact, there was even enough time to get bored, oh no!

And yes, there was danger. Imagine the stunned expression on my face the day a branch broke, and the wind left my lungs. But the growth I experienced was worth the risks.

Children naturally climb whatever is at their disposal: barns, boulders, bridges, fences. Sadly, many children are kept inside by over-protective, germaphobic parents who squash the joy and liberty right out of childhood. Over-scheduled children and their parents are stretched to their limits. Daydreaming and pretending and thinking are replaced by the rat race.

As we grow from children to adults, we find no time for contemplative prayer or reflection of God’s goodness, beauty and truth. We are harried, because we don’t make solitude and quietness a priority. Jesus continues to offer to lead us beside still waters and restore our souls, but we pay no attention.

Psalm 23: 1-2, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He refreshes my soul.”

Oh how I wish I had a magnificent climbing-tree in my backyard now…sigh.

-Joyce Hague