Wind and trees...

“He who plants trees, benefits another generation.” -- Sunephebi

I first saw this quote when I was in high school. I wrote it out and gave it to my father. My father was a tree planter. I admired many things about him, especially this. Every spring he would order trees by mail. He would wait with great excitement until the box would arrive, full of tiny trees, damp and fragrant with promise.

He would press me, the youngest child, into service. Together, we would dig holes, carefully plant the wee trees with their threadlike roots, and then water them well. My job was to keep them wet each day, running the water until it pooled deeply around the slim trunks.

I remember pretending I was riding a horse, around the age of 8. I would run through the paths between the trees, and then leap nimbly over them. They were 2 feet tall or so at this time, and growing fast. My imaginary steed and I would turn the trees into a variety of obstacles to clear.

Today those trees reach impossibly high into the Massachusetts sky. It is hard to imagine they started out as 2 inch sprouts wrapped in plastic and cardboard. My father imagined it. He knew he would never live to see it, but he could imagine it and he made it happen. And I helped.

This photo was taken as a cold front blew through and whipped the late October leaves off the tree's. These are white birches, which I bought for $5.00 4 years ago. They were wrapped in plastic at a discount store, and no longer than my hand. I planted them, whispering a prayer to my father as I did so. They now stand taller than my fingers reach when I extend my arm over my head.

Today my fathers trees shade my sister and her family, living in the home my father built. My birches will shade me in a few years, and hopefully others who come after me. I can see them, as clearly as my father could see the towering pines we planted together so long ago. A gift of generations.