How Lovely it is!
- Lois Rice - June 24, 1987 -
"Dad, that old pecan tree is sure a mess," our college graduate son Chris remarked. Not a week earlier an older friend who visited us remarked "What an absolutely beautiful unique tree that is." Is there indeed truth in the statement 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'.
I certainly must agree with the friend's opinion because I love the tree so much. It was in our backyard when we bought this house twenty two years ago and we thought it a very pretty little bush. My husband kept it trimmed as you would a bush and it stayed beautiful and green but didn't grow much. Neither my husband nor I have much expertise in botany, but just trim and water and let nature take its course.
One day when the tree was about eight years old a friend asked my husband why he kept trimming back his pecan tree. My husband said, "Is that what that is? I've wondered for years. It never dies but never grows much either." So he continued to water it but stopped trimming it back. It has now grown to tower over most of the trees in the neighborhood yards. But the base trunk is divided into eight or ten parts and it looks like a giant bush instead of a tree.
There is little hope that one day a strong Oklahoma wind will not split the trunk in two, but I choose not to dwell on that possibility.
I choose to enjoy the beautiful tree as long as it lives, which may even be longer than I. But even if it succumbs to the wind one day the beautiful memories will never leave me.
I shall recall my husband tending it lovingly. I shall see my grandchildren climbing it, so cautiously at first and then venturing higher and higher to make my heart skip a beat and challenge their guardian angels. I will remember a busy squirrel making endless trips up and down it with one nut at a time to secure his family's winter meals. And the serenades of the birds who came to rest in its bountiful shade as I drank my morning coffee under it will always be music in my ears. The joy of discovery as the grandchildren pick them up saying after every one "Here's one!" as their busy little hands fill buckets. And oh the incredible challenge as they try to learn to open a pecan without crushing the succulent meats. Or the grimace on their little faces when they get a bit of shell with the pecan. I will always love the joy of giving the extra pecans to people who have no tree of their own. And on how delicious were those pecan pies at family dinners. The aroma alone is enough to fill a heart with a lifetime of secure feelings.
Yes, my old tree, you are lovely indeed. But of all the gifts you share with me is the lesson of life. You never complain that our erroneous trimming cost you a sturdy trunk that might have ensured you a longer life. You simply took what was given to you and proceeding with life. Would that I might always do the same!
-- Lois Rice, June 24, 1987
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