ode to a tree

[lizziebelle]

breezy willow tree, originally uploaded by Lizzie~Belle.

The willow has always been my favorite tree, ever since I can remember. It was the first tree I learned to identify. It's one of the first to turn green in the spring, one of the last to lose its leaves in the fall, and it turns precisely the same yellowish-green color both seasons. I especially love the weeping willow, because it bends to caress the earth, and any who stand beneath it.

My wand is made from a willow that was the daughter of a tree on my grandparents' farm. Both trees are now gone.

My niece is also named Willow, named after a friend of my brother's from school, and whose sisters were friends with my sister and I.

My mother's favorite tree is the elm, but I always thought of them as haughty, with their branches all up in the air, inaccessible. (There is an elm in the cemetery next door, however, that makes up for all the stuck-up elms I've known in the past; it reaches down to say hello and is quite friendly.)

This willow tree is in the parking lot up the street from my office. It is a sober sort of tree, as it is in front of a funeral home, but it is not a sad tree. Today, it was dancing in the breeze as the morning sun lit its bright yellow-green branches.