Wednesday, March 17, 2010

If I Were a Tree...

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.

12 comments:

  1. 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!

    ♥namaste♥

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  2. 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.

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  3. If I were a palm I would be a date palm so I would be producing good health and sharing with others.

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  4. I 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.

    Hugs

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  5. 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.

    And 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

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  6. 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.

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  7. What wonderful words!

    Hmmm. If I were a tree, I'd be a... red maple! Just because I love 'em :)

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  8. 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 :))

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  9. A 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. :-)

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  10. And, 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.

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  11. maybe 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.....
    jd in st louis

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  12. 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.

    i 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.

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