At the back of the yard this big birch tree stands alone. It’s very messy, shedding branches large and small all the time. It’s rotting, dying unfortunately, from some disease or what may have been a lightning strike many years ago that left a nasty scar up it’s divided trunk. I will never know for sure.
But it’s still a beautiful old tree with peeling white bark and tiny yellow leaves. This summer it served as home for growing baby squirrels who would pop up out of the top of the trunk to squeal at me when I worked in the yard. It holds a bluebird house that has seen a few fledglings off into the world. And one of my cats is buried beneath it’s branches.
I will be very sad when the tree finally goes. Hopefully that won’t be for a long while yet. But it will be nice to remember it this way, beneath a blue autumn sky, clouds rolling past overhead.
I've never really liked labels, I am this, I am that. But in the interest of introducing myself, I can say that I am many things: nurse, writer, photographer, poet, painter, gardener, friend, armchair philosopher, counselor, nature lover, home makeover aficionado, movie buff, practicing yogi, and aspiring world traveler. I think that's a pretty good list for now. I want to become a bigger part of the vital, creative force I feel deeply at work in the world and connect with other people who want to do the same.
Jacqlyn Thorne 