Thursday
Dec092010
Dancing Tree
December 9, 2010 * * * * * Posted by: guest blogger 
Every time I pass the oak tree on our corner, I just know it’s asking me to dance. I’ve had this kind of relationship with trees for as long as I can remember. When I was too young to go to school but old enough to play in the backyard by myself, I remember grabbing the lower limbs of trees and hoisting myself up so that I could hang head down with my legs clamped tightly around a branch. I loved the upside down world that I saw.Throughout my childhood my fascination with trees continued. I built tree house after tree house with my friends. They just keep getting bigger and more complex as we advanced to taller and taller trees. With the arrival of November would come pecan season. We would climb as high as we could in the pecan trees and then begin to sway back and forth. The pecans would shake loose and then we would shimmy down to gather as many pecans as we could in our pockets. I learned how to hold two pecans together in my one hand and then squeeze as hard as I could with both hands until they cracked. Pecans are best when you crack them yourself.
When I grew up and went to college, I lived in a dorm near a huge weeping willow tree. I fell in love with that tree. Its curtains of drooping branches fell all the way to the ground and offered me a perfect hideaway with the privacy and quiet I so desperately needed. Then one day my willow tree was gone. It had been cut down and the ground around it was strewn with its remains. I’ll never forget the horror and sense of loss that I felt with the death of my tree. I learned in time that I had hideaways within myself, places where I could find peace and solace.
I eventually married and my husband and I moved into a second story apartment with large windows surrounded by trees. We called it our tree house home. Later we had two small sons and moved to a home with a huge Cottonwood tree in our backyard. My husband built a very large tree house for our sons, but it was really for me. I used to go up there in the evenings after the boys were in bed, lie on my back and watch the stars through the tree limbs. Somehow the stars seem more reachable when you look at them through tree limbs.
The trees in the Pacific Northwest were the largest and most beautiful that I had ever seen. They seemed to be competing with the mountains for which could reach higher. I loved the way they stretched skyward and wept with each rain. We chose to live among those trees. Even though we have since moved to a place without large trees, I can close my eyes and still see those towering evergreens. I always will.
I have become a driftwood sculptor and gourd artist. I love the touch of wood and the satisfaction that comes with making its beauty visible to others. Wood surrounds me. To reach for it is one of the most natural acts in my world. So why would that oak tree on our corner not want to dance with me?
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Special guest post today by Kathleen Martin whose work can be found over at the Artisan Collective. Thank you for joining us here today, Kathleen, and for your wonderful story.
Reader Comments (15)
Love the story, and the capture supports it
It amazes me that this thread has wound around your complete life, Kathleen. I think somewhere deep down within YOU are a tree. We all know trees are alive and have their own souls, speaking to us when we listen.
I have had my own affinity to special trees in my past. One in particular, during high school days, was my only haven. In later years it, too, was cut down. I mourned it's loss. So many memories....
Thank you for this story. Thank you for your art that clearly resonates from within you.
It makes me wonder if we all take bits and pieces of our childhood lives..and weave them into something with meaning in our adult ones. So beautiful how your love for trees has culminated into your sculpting them into small pieces of art.
Wonderful words and image! Thank-you for joining us here today Kathleen!!!!
do you know thomas pakenam's 'meetings with remarkable trees'? your lovely post made me think of that. i too love trees, and love nothing better than to lie beneath them looking up through filigree branches...good for the soul!
Beautiful to see how your love for trees made you a driftwood sculptor. Lovely post and image, thanks for sharing.
I loved this post that followed your life with tree houses up until the present with driftwood and a dance. just lovely.
Yay! another tree girl! loved them all my life ... thanks, Kathleen, for sharing.
When I was little tiny girl, I was allowed to wander as far as a certain tree I called Mrs. Brown. "Don't go past Mrs. Brown's!". "Where are you going?" "Don't worry, I'm just going to Mrs. Brown's." I had forgotten all about this until just now. Thank you for the wonderful reminder of a magical tree in my life! And as I'm writing, there was also a tree called the Winnie the Pooh Tree, it was much farther away and it was a milestone to finally be big enough to ride your bike there and climb into his branches.
Welcome Kathleen, from one to another.
Such beautiful story! Trees are mysterious living things to me, I often wonder how life can be as a tree, standing in one place forever... and how many lives a tree must witness throughout his life span... I love trees too! :)
Clearly this tree is in the mood for dancing!!! Look at the way it is reaching out and twisting in anticipation!!!! You are so right! I too love trees and am grateful the small forest outside my bedroom window every single morning!
There is nothing I enjoy more in the summer than laying back in my lounge chair underneath my aspen tree, watching the leaves flutter in the wind. I, too, love trees and find them all so unique and beautiful. Thank you for joining us here today with your wonderful story from childhood to adulthood.
I love this post, Kathleen. Your words painted the picture in a way that I could clearly see you and the trees. How beautiful that you've turned your love for trees into being a driftwood sculptor.
oh what a beautiful tale, woven with words and trees and magic.
i feel that same way about trees...i have always felt most at home in the forest. and i love that you have your own tree house!
Wonderful story Kathleen. Welcome to Vision and Verb.
What a wonderful story and image. Welcome to our bunch of very nice girls :-)