Arbor Day is celebrated this year on April 26. It is a day to focus on trees – planting them and on why preserving them is so important.
Back when I was in elementary school, we used to get trees to plant in our yards on Arbor Day. I remember receiving them and how my mother would always welcome a new tree. We would go outside, find a suitable place, and plant the tree. Sometimes the trees lived and thrived, and sometimes they did not.
I don’t recall my kids every coming home with trees on Arbor Day, which is unfortunate, because I would love to be able to look out in the yard and notice different trees and think back to the time when we planted it together. It would have created a legacy of us spending time together.
Many people enjoy or appreciate trees (perhaps not during allergy season). They are beautiful, provide shade for us and our houses, provide the earth with oxygen and pull out carbon dioxide, provide shelter for nesting animals and provide supports to hang a hammock. What’s not to love?
In my yard, we have a swing that hangs from a large sassafras tree. When we first moved into the house, my son was about 7 years old and I would sit on the swing and watch him ride his bike up and down the street. Then, when he was 17, I sat on that same swing and watched him practice parallel parking the car to pass his driving test. Then a few years later, I sat in that same swing and watched my daughter parallel park for her driving test. They are fond memories, all simple, free and under the spread of a large tree.
Personally, my favorite place in my yard is on the hammock strung between two trees. It is so peaceful in that place. I love to lie there, grab a branch dropped from one of the trees, use it to rock myself, and gently rock with my eyes closed in the hammock. The trees provide shelter from the sun and I can hear the birds singing and hopping through the trees above. It’s truly a relaxing experience lying under the trees in the hammock. It’s a great way to rest, recharge and connect with nature and myself.
Even dead trees are useful. They provide shelter for all sorts of animals such as owls, squirrels, bats, birds, even nesting ducks. I am trying to keep a dead tree in my yard from being cut down to provide that much needed shelter for the animal residents in my neighborhood (and even honey bees – which are in serious decline so they need all the help they can get).
One early summer night, when my kids were young, we returned home at dusk, and we sat in the driveway and watched the bats flying around catching bugs. It was a great reminder that nature needs our help to provide the best ecosystems; if the animal inhabitants in our neighborhoods, and planet, have an opportunity to thrive, we thrive too, because we have balance. It was a great learning experience to provide the kids the opportunity to experience some of the more elusive inhabitants of our neighborhood.
| “When was the last time you spent a quiet moment just doing nothing - just sitting and looking at the sea, or watching the wind blowing the tree limbs, or waves rippling on a pond, a flickering candle or children playing in the park?”
-Ralph Marston |
What fond memories do you have of trees – climbing them? Swinging on a swing hung from the limbs? Did you receive trees to plant on Arbor Day?