Tree Hugging

When I was in high school, I wasn't in too many clubs. Between band, marching band (cough *nerd!* cough), church activities, and homework, I wasn't that keen on making my schedule even more busy than it was.

But there were two clubs I did join. The first was the Future Farmers of America. I joined this club because there was a cute boy in it who I had a huge crush on for about a month or so. Sitting in that club meeting, I stunk of fraud. Because of course, I was a fraud. I didn't own a carhart jacket, I'd never even ridden on a tractor, I wasn't that into country music, and having a best friend who lived on a farm just wasn't the same as living on one myself. And they all knew it. They were nice and welcoming,  but it was clear I wasn't one of them. I only went to one meeting of that club.

The other club I was a member of was called H.O.P.E., which stood for "Helping our planet's environment." This club was run by a super zany and passionate science teacher, who once confessed to vacuuming her lawn after accidentally spilling something toxic on it. I don't remember what all we did in the club, though I know we planted some trees and we all got t-shirts that had this poem on them:

I think that I shall never see
a poem lovely as a tree.

The rest of the poem can be found here, and is by Joyce Kilmer.

It's embarrassing but writing even just that short stanza made my eyes begin to well up because I love trees so much. My favorite tree is the weeping willow, because it is so enchanting. One time, as a missionary, my native-Spanish speaking companion asked me what the name of that tree was in English. When I told her "weeping willow," she repeated it slowly in Spanish and said, "What a beautiful name."

Under a willow tree: the most romantic place to "kees"

I also love apple blossom trees, and just a little fyi, the apple blossom is Michigan's state flower.

source

Ok, enough about trees. The whole point in telling you all of that was to explain that I love nature. ESPECIALLY non-winter nature. And now that the earth here is going from gray and white and brown to green and all colors of the rainbow, I can't stop taking pictures of it. So please don't hate me for sharing some of them now. I can't help it.

I'll calm down soon. (Maybe.)