It should come as no surprise to our friends that TreeFolks sees the world in tree terms. We use a lot of tree puns around the office, in our email exchanges, and in our everyday interaction with the unsuspecting public; it gets to be a tree-mendous responsibility. (Sorry.) TreeFolks takes it to the extreme, but we’re not alone in thinking like a tree. How often do you hear about someone trying something new and “branching out”? When we move to a new home and really settle in, we “put down roots”. We talk about spreading ideas as “planting seeds”. It’s hard not to admire a tree, to want to emulate it. Today a strong breeze is blowing over the fields next to our office, and I sit to admire a tree in our yard, tall and rustling in the wind.
The tree I’m pondering is about 50, maybe 60 years old, and I imagine the person who placed it here. Who were they? Was it a child who grew up alongside a whip of a sapling? Could it have been the landowner, making shade for grazing animals? The trees we see in our city were, for the most part, planted consciously by the people who walked here before us. They plant trees for so many reasons of their own, but as they pass on before us, we are left a living legacy of leaves that stretch to the heavens and roots that hold us firm to the ground. Trees remind us of who came before and who will follow us. What a perfect lesson for a breezy, golden afternoon.
Plant a tree for the future with our Community Tree Plantings most Saturdays from October through March. Learn more and sign up online.
