Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
There are variations to that quote…from Martin Luther to Dr. King to someone else named Henderson. I don’t know if it matters who coined it; it feels like a good one regardless. And, I have to decide whether to plant an apple tree this year or not.
We don’t have a “real” apple tree, but a flowering crab. Half of it is dead. At times, it has been a pain with the shoots that come out of it and the crab apples that are too small to mess with but fall on the lawn. Yet it’s been beautiful at times. I am not sure what we will do with it.
Fall may be my favorite season, largely due to trees. I have liked trees forever. On the farm there is an American elm that my mother always said was planted the year my brother was born. Over the years, it’s been bashed by wind but always has come back. In high school, I used to say I wanted to get married in that tree, but it was a little small for that.
We replaced two maples that were gorgeous with an ash tree a few years ago. I have worried at times that it may come down with the bore that affects many but so far, so good. One day it had beautiful yellow leaves and then the wind came and they were gone.
The park that I walk most at has a cottonwood tree that I call my own, probably like everyone who walks there. It turns like the aspen. Walking under aspen is one of my favorite things to do. I feel sorry for those in the storm and fire areas that have lost their trees along with everything else. Trees provide a comfort that they can persist through the years.
There are the trees that are a nuisance in my life. What we call Chinese elms but are probably Siberian elms manage to keep growing after they’re cut. The cedars that take over the hill sides of the farm. But even doing battle with the cedars are invigorating times. And there is a sense of accomplishment, even though more cedars wait.
The trees connect to people from the past, even if we don’t know them. They provide us shade, a place to watch nature, a place to be in awe. I may plant a new tree this spring or another spring for others to enjoy down the road.
“If what I say resonates with you, it is merely because we are both branches on the same tree.” Albert Einstein Note—October 17, 1933 was when Einstein immigrated to the US from Nazi Germany.
shoe on the other foot 