Arbor Day and My Tale with Trees

I suppose it’s fitting, having grown up in Nebraska, the home of the Arbor Day Foundation, that I would have a love for trees. Pausing, I see how trees have marked important memories throughout my life…swinging on the Willow tree at my Aunt and Uncle’s outside of Chicago, the “Advice from a Tree” notepad my Grammy gave me that I read over and over when I needed to feel strong.

So like a good Nebraska company would, my senior year internship gave us tree saplings on Arbor Day. I brought it home to Will, and the two of us planted our little tree friend to grow on the back porch of his house on Holdridge street that held so many memories. When it was time to pack up and journey on from Lincoln, the tree rode along as we began our journey south. When we stopped on the side of the road to find out that Will had been transferred out east. When we cried, and agreed that we would be alright.

That little tree traveled all the way to Maryland, where it was joined by some more friends when one day Will announced to me over the phone that he ordered some Redwood saplings. I wasn’t sure how these trees known to be giants would do on a deck balcony, I was sure that I loved the person who decided to plant trees for fun.

The day will called to tell me our little pine tree had died I cried. It was with us for over a year and I suppose maybe it was us expecting it wouldn’t last that long, or maybe that it grew with us, but I loved that tree, and I think Will did too.

The Redwood tree was officially named “Mr. Tree” and sparked our love for the species. When I wound up in Boston, we spent weekends together wandering the Public Garden, Tatte coffees in hand. No matter the season, we went to check on what became known as “our tree”. The beautiful Redwood that grew in a climate that changed constantly, yet there it stood year by year. We sat under that tree dreaming, chatting, being in silence. It was one of my favorite spots in the world.

Our Boston Public Garden Redwood spot through the years, and through the seasons.

Our Boston Public Garden Redwood spot through the years, and through the seasons.

Our Boston Public Garden Redwood spot through the years, and through the seasons.

In the time in between, I painted Will a watercolor storybook of two trees who got separated from the greenhouse, and how they were planted together again. This tale of long distance was read at our wedding. Leftover trees from an Arbor Day celebration at work in Boston wound up at Will’s family home on the lake in Connecticut. It’s a special feeling to walk out over the fourth of July with the blue water in the background to see our little trees growing away at such a special place.

And so one August day, at golden hour, Will and I took a walk through East Campus in Nebraska, Diary Store ice cream in hand, and across the street from the house we planted our first tree, Will found one that looked so much like our spot in Boston, and asked me to marry him.

Back to our Boston tree spot and bench to share the good news, and to start planning our wedding. It was in that spot, in a little white Sezane notebook, that we talked about what we wanted to be like as a couple, and how we wanted every decision we made for our wedding to be in alignment with that.

When we saw a treehouse with llamas roaming around we instantly knew that was our spot.

By this point you might be seeing a trend happening…we read different wedding customs from around the world, and found that one was to plant a tree during the wedding ceremony. I about fell over. And we promptly planned how we could incorporate that. Each guest at our tiny little wedding found a tree sapling of their own to take home with them and plant. And while Will and I were getting married, we planted one of our own.

This little guy became known as “The Love Tree” and we had a big plot on how this tree would make it back to Houston while we went off on the Honeymoon. We laugh now at some of the stressors of the tree getting left at the ceremony site and our best friends being nervous to tell us. Not to worry, Kara, the owner of the property, mailed our little love tree back to us. It was the strangest looking little thing and we loved it. It pretty quickly died on our kitchen counter, along with the rest of our guests trees. We just brought ourselves to officially remove the little stick from the pot…while looking at each other with big eyes and saying we still loved each other.

We’ve planted a lemon and tangerine tree on our deck, and those blooms are the best smell I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. It was the same scent I wore on our wedding day from Le Labo.

A special thank you to these giant wonders for bringing me some of the best moments in my life, from the big ones you’ll never forget, to the everyday moments that have become so special they stay in your memory forever. Take a moment and look an extra second longer at the next tree you see, maybe take a seat on the bench underneath it, or if you’re lucky plant a new sapling. If my life is any indication, I think these friends can breathe life into our days in more ways than one.

Mr Tree in all his glory