Have you ever played this game: If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?
A friend of mine once referred jokingly to people who played this game. But I had an answer. I had actually thought about this.
If I were a tree, I thought, I’d be a mighty oak. Oaks are strong and slow burning. With a wide and sheltering canopy, a mature oak provides shade and sustenance for small animals and dreamers alike.
But having been in the program for a while, I realized that I did not want to be an oak. Oaks do not fare well in storms. Their very strength makes them rigid and prone to breaking. A wind that is strong enough can sheer a limb or topple the tree.
No, rather than an oak, I aspire to be a humble palm. Palm trees are flexible, made to weather the storm. In a strong wind, they bend and sway. And when the gale has past, the palm returns to its natural posture, standing slender, straight and tall.
O Rex Gentium
1 day ago
I was just going to order a weeping willow for my front yard because I love them so much. I think I would be a weeping willow. They are misnamed though. Their gentleness, flexibility, and shade speak to me of serenity and not weeping. I'm going to order it today!
ReplyDelete♥namaste♥
Gotta love the dogwoods and cherry blossoms this time of year. Too bad they only bloom once a year. Maybe a pin oak, a little unusual and never loses its leaves.
ReplyDeleteIf I were a palm I would be a date palm so I would be producing good health and sharing with others.
ReplyDeleteI would be a weeping willow or a douglas fir tree, growing so tall and old. Maybe a redwood, gosh this is a great question and truthfully I loved your answer.
ReplyDeleteHugs
As soon as I got the drift of your post I knew what kind of tree I wanted to be, a cherry tree. I grew up in D.C. where we had flowering cherry trees everywhere. Once a year we would go down to the Tidal Basin to the Cherry Blossom Festival. They are breathtakingly beautiful.
ReplyDeleteAnd if I couldn't be a cherry blossom I would want to be a weeping willow. I adored them also as a child. I called them the tree with lines. :)
PG
Wow. I didn't know that about oaks or palms..great stuff...hmmmm. I think I would want to be an apple tree...short and study...and people come everyyear to climb in my branches and pick the delicious fruit...giving back year after year and making others happy.
ReplyDeleteWhat wonderful words!
ReplyDeleteHmmm. If I were a tree, I'd be a... red maple! Just because I love 'em :)
If I were a palm tree with seagulls letting loose overhead and pink flamingos stuck in the ground near my feet, I think I'd be ticked. (Mad :))
ReplyDeleteA palm is exactly what I chose! I thought, just as you did, that I was strong and therefore powerful, when in reality the palm tree can get its top completely blown off and just go ahead and grow a new one. That's strength. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd, by the way, where I live Pin Oaks DO lose their leaves... they are the last to drop them, but they always do fall off, eventually.
ReplyDeletemaybe a sycamore - it's offspring (leaves) are almost indestructible. this has been the case so far for my kids. however, i LOVE mimosa trees. most people hate them. but, they seem like a little bit of the tropics in this temperate zone (midwest US) and my grandmother had a beautiful one in her yard when i was a kid. really good question.....
ReplyDeletejd in st louis
this post reminded me of one of my favorite stories. do you know the fable about the reed and the oak tree? i always saw myself in the reed. that though i feel small and flexible and blown about by the wind sometimes, i hold my ground and when the wind stops blowing, i am still there rooted and growing. as opposed to being rigid and inflexible, that makes you prone to break in half.
ReplyDeletei don't know enough about trees to know exactly what i'd be. maybe a pine tree. something comforting about being an evergreen. sure there are needles, but even in the cold they don't lose what comforts them.