With my hand touching her trunk, as always, with childlike wonder I gazed adoringly upward into her maze of branches and divided trunk. How often I have stood and sat here longing to climb and be cradled in her arms. And the whisper comes again, “What you seek is not found by climbing.” My adolescence during the 60’s and all the civil rights and liberation/war movements, my education as an older student with credits older than most of the other students, my 35 years in the business world, and my recent work as a counselor flashed before me. I bowed in acknowledgement of all those who tried to climb. I whispered “sweet mercy” to all who chose to know climbing can strengthen but not when another is used as a ladder. That is the whisper I now understand. I need not climb her trunk and arms to know her embrace of peace and love.

A work in progress.

With a final bow and caress I promised to keep returning. One day, one day, I will touch her trunk and know the embrace of Peace and Love. From the top of her canopy, and beyond, I will gaze down at a little hobbit who learned to climb with an open heart and arms. No ladder needed.