TREES

One heathen superstition I can't get rid of is the practice of knocking on wood for good luck.

The heathens believed that powerful spirits lived in trees. So they took notice of the power these spirits had and tapped on the tree, hoping that acknowledging that power would bring them good luck. Or so one legend has it.

Joyce Kilmer wrote a beautiful poem entitled "Trees". Then somebody put that poem to music and it is a song high on my list of favorite songs. I got acquainted with this song when I was a young teen and had a boyfriend that used to sing it as we walked down the road. Once we found a big tree, climbed up it and sat together on one of its strong branches. What fun!

Every Christmas season in days gone by, my sisters and I used to harmonize on one of our favorite songs "Winds Through the Olive Trees".

When I was about three, my father made me a swing that hung from the tree in our back yard. But I soon learned to avoid it because huge, ugly, bright green worms would fall from that tree, sometimes on little me. Something like that happened even after I grew up. We had a beautiful Mountain Ash whose branches extended over our back steps. This time the offending worms were little yellow things that would fall on the steps and in my hair! Not only

that but this Mountain Ash was leading our visiting birds to moral destruction as in late fall the red berries fermented. The birds couldn't fly a straight line after sampling those berries. So, with sorrowing hearts, we cut down that tree and planted a lilac tree in its place.

On the other hand, I saved a tree once. My husband had planted an apple tree in our yard and a

few years later a terrible windstorm split the little tree right down the middle. As by now, my

husband had departed this earthly life, it was up to me to try to save this badly injured tree. So

I fashioned and applied a splint or two with duct tape wrapped it round and round, hoping this was the right thing to do. The tree trunk grew back together as time passed and through the years has produced many, many pounds of really good apples. I have given many bags of apples to strangers and I have had many dozens of deer enjoying a feast on the fallen apples.

Trees give us lumber to build our homes, fruit to feed our bodies, beauty to feed our souls, shade to protect us from a hot sun. Trees are the source of countless blessings.

Trees deserve to be hugged!!