Tree Hugging

I learned something about myself a long time ago....I love trees. Not in the tree hugging eco-zealous chain myself to logging trucks kind of love, but in a simpler way, in a walk through the woods enjoy the smell listen to the birds sing kind of way.

All trees are not equal in my eyes, however....one family rises above all others in its beauty, the pine. I never tire of them.

When we studied the eco-systems of the world in school (forgive me my southern friends) I failed to see the beauty in the lazy drapes of heat laden equatorial branches, those moss drenched trees that rise out of bayous and swamps or the large leafed trees connected in their canopy by vines and roots that grow above ground (the ones Tarzan and Jane swung through calling on the elephants). Their beauty still escapes me.

But the pines, those trees brave enough to hold their needles through fierce weather, those that stand straight above all others, those that fill my state, I can't get enough.

On my daily commute, and as I work my way around the state over the next few months, I will watch the trees, the pines. I will look for them, watch them, and love every one I see.