The tree is dancing

January 19

The sun is shining and we are soaking it in. Clear sky-blue sky above! Everyone around us is happy. I'm getting messages from friends saying, "Enjoy this beautiful day." Should I be surprised that we humans are so sensitive to the weather? I certainly notice it a lot more now that we are in it everyday. And yes, this sunny day is making us feel good. "Who wants to eat outside at the soup place?" I ask as it approaches lunch time. We get our soup and head to the outside tables. We are the only ones there. "Come outside!" I want to shout to the patrons in the restaurant's dark interior. But I resist and focus on rolling up my sleeves to let my arms feel the warm rays.

We slurp our soup and look at the sky. The bare tree branches look like spindly fingers reaching up. After we eat we spend some time playing in on and around a tree in a raised bed just outside the restaurant  My little one cannot resist climbing up on the low circular wall that surrounds the tree. My first grader ducks under the bare branches and heads for the trunk. I know from past visits with this three that she will find a way to climb. I remember when she was little and used to walk around and around the circular wall just like her little sister does now. I have years of photos of them here next to this unassuming  tree planted outside the soup place. "The tree is dancing!" I hear. "Look at the shadows," adds my older daughter  From her perch she is gently pushing the branches with her feet. On the ground the outlines sway this way and that. "I want to climb!" announces my little one and we scoot in to the base of the tree. I give her a boost and she is up next to her sister.

I had a special tree as a kid. I spent a lot of time sitting in the low branches looking out at my world from this altered angle. I remember the feeling of testing a branch to see if it could hold my weight. I remember the thrill of gently swaying back and forth with the wind, high up in my tree. My tree was dancing, yes my dears, and so is yours.