When I was a kid, I always used to like to watch growing trees

I never realized that there was any art to how to grow trees until I tried it myself. When I was about 10, my mom let us each pick out a tree for the backyard. One of my sisters picked out a silver poplar, the other picked out a maple, and I picked out a weeping willow. Unfortunately, the people who delivered it were careless. They left each growing tree on the hot cement without telling us they had arrived. By the time we got there, the growing trees had their roots dried out and looked withered and half dead. The weeping willow was in the worst shape of all, and my parents told me that it probably wouldn’t survive.

I wanted that willow to live more than anything. To me it was better than all the other growing trees in the neighborhood. I would sit outside with it, water it, and play my tape recorder to it while singing songs. I think privately my parents would joke about it, but they were impressed by how much I loved that tree. To them it wasn’t useful. It wasn’t a growing citrus tree that could give them orange, but they respected the affection I felt towards it and were happy when it finally started to recover.

Since then, I have been growing trees whenever I have the chance. I donate to tree planting charities, volunteer my time to plant trees in public parks, and in general involve myself with growing and living things. I even contemplated becoming a botanist, but I don’t have the mind of a scientist. Instead, I like to sit in the shade of that willow and contemplate the beauty of nature.