Behind my house stands a beautiful tree....a full-grown willow. It's flowing branches are the first to show new growth in spring and the last to lose leaves in fall. I love this tree.
Simply looking at the willow relaxes me. I sit on my deck and watch the gentle breezes lift its slender branches almost like a caress and then oh-so-softly settle them back into place. This past spring and summer I saw almost every morning, a cardinal perched high in the willow, singing his lovely cardinal song, welcoming the day. My spirits lifted with the willow branches as I listened, peace filling my heart.
I wish we were all like this majestic tree, allowing the trials and tribulations of life to buffet us as they please with balmy breezes or hurricane-force winds, bending but never breaking, stretching our arms wide and welcoming all living creatures into our embrace. Too many of us are maples, oaks and poplars....standing straight, tall and inflexible, seemingly strong but when hit by a storm, breaking, shattering, even pulling up roots and dying. The delicate willow remains unfazed, living on and thriving.
The willow tree is sleeping now. It's leafless branches stirring in the winter winds. The cardinal still comes to sit in its lofty top and sing a winter song. I suspect the willow is smiling in its sleep...a part of it listening to the red bird but dreaming, too, of a day a few months from now when it will stir and shake and welcome spring with new, delicate growth.
The cardinal will be waiting. So will I.
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