Inspiration: Trees, Old and New

Trees play a vital role in our family. We climb them, we plant them, we eat their fruit and inhale their fragrance. We sit on boulders beneath them and rest in their shade. Two of the trees in our front yard were ceremonially planted with the afterbirths of our children. We know each tree's cycle, we inspect each nest, each squirrel's path, each season of dropping leaves and acorns and flushing out with new spring growth. In our own backyard, the coral tree that was dormant for winter now sprouts new green leaves. This is a great source of wonder for Big B, who can't wait to show Papa his discoveries of growth.As we marvel at the presence of the new, we reflect on trees of the past, in a different sort of way. We were recently given a very special set of vintage tree stamps by Papu, who designed each one for his artistry years ago. Big B was instantly enamored with them and got to work overlaying small designs atop larger ones, and composing the placement of each stamp precisely. The same afternoon, Big B declared that we needed bookmarks in our house, to keep our place between nightly readings of The Magic Treehouse series. I love when things happen like this! A perfectly appropriate set of treehouse bookmarks was born. As Papa told Big B just this morning, we hope to one day build our children a Magic Treehouse of their very own. On this gorgeous spring-y morning, we give thanks for trees, in all of their forms, their past, their present, and their future.

"It is not so much for its beauty
that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts,
as for that subtle something,
that quality of air,
that emanation from old trees,
that so wonderfully changes and
renews a weary spirit."

--Robert Louis Stevenson