We all need to be able to feel safe somewhere, with someone, sometime. For me, that place was a tree that had horizontally emerged out of the side of a hill on the shores of Lake Michigan. The someone was my best friend Heidi. The sometime was whenever we needed someone to talk to.
It all started back in the early 1980s. There was a group of us that would “hang out” in the trees at the base of a hill on the shores of Lake Michigan. It was a time before cell phones and selfies. It was a time when we wanted to escape our parent’s house and be with our friends. We learned about each other. We talked about our dreams. We had friendships. We had relationships. We had all the typical “teen” stuff only without the complications of technology. In fact, if you would have asked any of us to have our picture taken at the time we probably would have hidden. Maybe that’s what we did in the trees, we hid. For my best friend and me, sometimes we needed to get away from the group.
When we sat on the tree, we felt the comfortable sense of being and our inner secrets and truths would emerge.
We would stroll down the path where our favorite tree lived. We would perch ourselves on it for hours and just talk. The soothing sounds of the waves caressing the shores, the wind swirling through the trees and the birds flying in the branches above us brought a certain peace. We discovered a magical power the tree had. When we sat on the tree, we felt the comfortable sense of being and our inner secrets and truths would emerge. When we realized its power we named the magical tree the “Truth Tree”. We would visit it often to unload the heavy weight of our secrets. The mere utterance of them allowed them to forever be left on the trunk of the magical tree.
I can no longer remember the secrets we shared there, but then again that was part of the magic of the tree. In sharing the secrets it freed us from them. Even if it was only one other person that knew of the secret, the setting it free allowed for it to be free, us to be free. When I recently visited the area where the “Truth Tree” lived I was shocked to see it remained, now a solo tree horizontally suspended from the hill. I climbed up on its mighty trunk and let my mind wander to the days long ago where I sat with my friend Heidi.
When we wander down the path of life, it helps to lighten our souls by sharing the secrets we are afraid to let go of. In the letting go of those secrets it lets the power those secrets have over us dissipate in the wind.
May you always find your “Truth Tree” in life and someone special to share its secrets with.
We all have our secret garden where we go to find the things that are missing
What a beautiful story about the magic-tree-of-life. I believe trees have intelligence and I’ll bet the tree loved you as much as you loved it. Thank you for sharing this coming-of-age-story with us. It was like there were three best friends sharing space and time; you, Heidi, and the wise tree.
I love this. It touches so many things about as children how we learned and how we trusted. It speaks of our bond of friendships. This is a very special one my friend.