Nature

There is something curious about sitting in a tree. Bright sunny days with only a little wind are perfect opportunities to read a book while in a tree. People don't usually look up and see you there, but you have every opportunity to look at them. It is very curious to observe the goings-on on a college campus, by the parking lots and dorms. Trees offer protection for the spy within as you can easily watch who comes and goes from buildings or cars. They don't offer much protection from the wind, but it is definitely worth it to find a good tree and take to climbing it. A good tree is one that has a place to set your book while you climb, low enough branches to pull yourself up with, and at least some sort of footholds for the scramble upwards. Once you're up in the tree, find a good spot to sit. Usually this is best if there is a little indent for a seat with your back against a branch. Maybe another branch to put your feet on too. Now sit back and relax. Isn't that nice? To find a good tree on campus took a little while because you have to survey each tree, by walking around the base of them. Don't lose heart, you'll find a good one. The one I found has a perfect seat, and it's not very high off the ground. It has a good base, and sturdy backrests and a footrest too. My guess is that no one really realized I was there, even though I wasn't wearing camo or something to really blend into the tree. Sitting in this tree while reading brings back such memories.

I took piano lessons from when I was five through senior year of highschool. My sister and I had our lessons at our teacher's house, and her house was right next to a park. While Kiera was in lessons, I would go play at the park, on the the playground, or play catch with my dad, or (fancy that) climb a tree and read. There was the absolute perfect tree in this park. It had big gnarly branches and wonderful footholds; it was the easiest tree to climb, even with a book in hand. I would climb up til I reached the perfect sitting branch, and would lean back against the trunk of the tree. Then out came the book and the reading started. I never wanted to get down from the tree to go into lessons when my sister was done; it was just the perfect place to be.

I'm not sure what it is about reading in a tree, but it makes the reading so much more enjoyable to me. I can read in my house on my couch, or on my bed, or anywhere else, but to be fully immersed in nature by sitting in a tree just has a different feel to it. It's a wonderful experience and I recommend that everyone should try it at least once before writing me off as a "weirdo" or something because I read in trees. Really, go out and try it. You might find what I did. It's very calming and soothing to feel the wind and the branches moving and hear the leaves rustling very close to your head. To see bird's nests at close proximity and feel the bark under your hands as you climb...there's just nothing like it. God made the trees for our enjoyment. Climbing them is a must.

To go back to the tree in the park at my piano lessons. Sometime in middle or highschool, I'm not sure which, there was a huge storm. Lightening and thunder and the whole works. For some reason that I don't understand, that perfect tree was struck by lightening. It was hit at the sitting spot, and the next time I went to the park, I saw that the spot was gone. There was no more reason to try to climb the tree, even though the base of it was still there to a decent height, because the tree was gone after that point. I was devastated. There was to be no more climbing, no more reading in that perfect tree. After that, for piano lessons, I just went to them and left. I never really went into the park again, for lack of time and for that tree being struck down. No longer did Kiera and I have the tree that we always sat in and played in and read in.

It's been a long time since I sat and read in a tree. Since that tree was hit by lightening, I have only done this twice. Once a couple of years ago in highschool when I climbed the great big tree in our front yard in the summer, and once in college. It was this last time that I realized how much I missed being able to sit by myself and enjoy nature and all that comes with it. It does get somewhat chilly if there is wind, especially if you're pretty high up, but even if just for an hour, doing this really has an impact. You learn things when you're in a tree. Especially if you're up pretty high. You learn what it is like to look down over the world. To see things from a different perspective. You learn what other people do when they think no one is watching because they don't know you're in the tree. You see people dancing alone on their way across campus. You see people together laughing so hard they're almost falling over. All this from a vantage point where no one can see you. Or at least they don't notice you, even if you are pretty visible. This is almost spiritual, in a sense, because maybe this is what it is like for God. At least a little bit. To be able to see a big expanse of space, and laugh with those who are laughing, and dance with those who are dancing, and share in their happiness whether or not they really know that you're there. Maybe this is why God created trees, and people with a desire to climb them. To get a glimpse of what God sees. To understand the beauty of the world. Maybe.