Shades of gratitude

The other day we posted a complaint about our oak tree leaves that seem to fall from October through March into April. We were focused on the inconvenience that on the ground oak leaves may cause. If we shift our focus to the good those trees and their leaves do, they bring shades of green to Spring, shade from the sun in Summer, and sussurating sounds as they are caressed by warm breezes. Oaks also provide acorn forage that helps feed turkeys, deer, squirrels and other local wildlife. We have a burr oak at the end of our drive that exhibits character in abundance. We're grateful we've learned to not take it for granted.

trees that share their neighborhood with us

Photo by J. Harrington

We're also grateful we're learning how to shift and broaden our focus to see a multitude of perspectives on many subjects. Our life would be diminished were it not for creative folks such as writer Robert Macfarlane and painter Jackie Morris producing treats such as The Lost Spells, which includes this perspective on the oak and other trees.

OAK

Out on the hill, old Oak still stands:
stag-headed, fire-struck, bare-crowned,
stubbornly holding its ground.

Poplar is the whispering tree,
Rowan is the sheltering tree,
Willow is the weeping tree —
and Oak is the waiting tree.

Three hundred years to grow,
three hundred more to thrive,
three hundred years to die —
nine hundred years alive.

Then there are artists such as Katie Holten, who have created works such as The Irish Tree Alphabet. We've not yet played with this version of a tree alphabet, but we've read her book, About Trees, and enjoyed every page. We're full of gratitude that we share a world with so many close to us that are part of our lives, and others, more distant, whose talent and efforts bring joys to our life through their arts. If we limit our focus to what needs fixing, we may become depressed and despairing since there's plenty of room for improvement almost everywhere we look. If we work toward a more balanced focus, enjoying and supporting and sharing what's going well, in addition to objecting to what's not, we'll probably live a longer, happier and more beneficial life. That would be something for which we can give thanks, today, tomorrow and every day, even if we lived nine hundred years.

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