A story for Shana

Once there was a tree. She was big, gnarled and spoke quietly when the wind blew. Once there was a child who could hear what the trees said when they talked on windy days. That child listened often and grew up loving the trees. She remembered many of their stories including this one.

"I was a sapling ever so long ago. Next to me grew a pack of trees bigger than me but only just. They stayed green in the summer no matter how dry it was, green in the winter when I was bare and green in the autumn and spring. People came each year to put lights on them and sparkling bits that reflected off the snow. They loved the greenest trees.

I was small,gangly and barely green. No one noticed me much.

As I grew a bit taller I saw another tree in the garden next to mine. She was covered with pink blossoms in the spring and was the most elegant tree I had ever seen. The bees sang to her each day and hummed in her blossoms. By autumn she had made glorious apples that the people gathered round to collect and treasure.

They loved her. I didn't have flowers or fruit.

As I grew each year I saw a bit farther a field and saw a magnificent strong tree. Its dense green foliage provided the safest homes for the starlings and sparrows, cardinals and robins. Its strong arms barely swayed in the highest winds and its solid trunk never failed. Its confidence and strength were its beauty. I even heard that people would draw pictures of its leaves and collect its sap to make a coveted nectar.

I swayed with every passing breeze and didn't have its strength. People did not admire my leaves.

One day you children came. You couldn't climb the bristly pine. The apple trees limbs' broke when you sat on them. The Maple tree was too tall to get a leg up. So some of you children came to visit me.

My branches were low enough and strong enough to climb. I could help you find new heights. You ran your fingers through my long trestles and created houses and games beneath them. And I realized they could shade you in the summer. I was spooky and creaky enough to tell ghosts stories beneath at Halloween. I caught the snow in my boughs for you in the winter. And in the spring I sheltered you from the rain. One child called me willow and said that I was a great tree. Me?A great tree?

I am not evergreen like a pine. I do not have beautiful pink blossoms like an apple tree. I am not as strong as the Maple tree. But I am a place to nestle and dream and share. Now I know I'm special too."

With a sigh the willow was still.

After listening to her story and with her head leaning close to the tree's trunk,the child whispered back to the willow. "I am glad you are you."