Remember those days, oh so long ago, when summers were spent swimming or fishing in the lake, fielding ground balls on the most uneven sandlots, ditching cars at night and fighting the urge to stay quiet when the pretty girl next door says hi. That has got to bring a smile to your face just thinking of the good ole days or a frown if you think about how many kids won't have those experiences. But that is for another entry. This is a nod to the days when just getting up without school hanging over your head or a job to run to was the norm during the months of warm. Sometimes I would climb the tallest hemlock on our hilltop property and be the highest being in the world - at least my little world. Scanning the horizons for a 360 degree view. Never once thinking about how those skinny little branches held my weight as I scampered up and bounced down amidst the perfectly spaced horizontals.
The other day I got a glimpse of how those branches held my weight. Trees have skeletons. The branches root deep into the trunk of the tree anchoring all those branches to create an immense amount of strength. The knots we see in wood are remnants of those branches and if ever you tried to hammer a nail through a knot, you know how hard it is. The internal cellulose of those branches is harder than the trunk wood. A lot harder.
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Retired Educator
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