Between work , school, and running around with my head cut off I barely have time to notice all of the beautiful scenery around me. Today at work I was able to enjoy having the windows open, the nice breeze, and the leaves falling down to the sidewalk. I made sure since I could not be outside to make sure that everyone else that was able to walk into The Strutt to purchase food and drink engaged in conversation with me about the gorgeous fall colors. It was really interesting to see a lot of people who were going about their day not noticing to be all of a sudden reminded of the great weather. Everyone that I talked to about the weather, fall, and the colors were all very excited to have something different to talk about. I actually enjoyed going outside to sweep up the ciggerette butts that people clumsily throw in every direction. It was so nice to be able to step outside and just enjoy the noises of society, and see all of the squirells scavenging around for there winter food.
After work, I rode my bike home as fast as I could to get to my dog whom was dying to see me. Immediately I put his harness on , and we took off for our stroll. We walked five miles. I took him to three different parks. I love watching him billy goat his way up hill inside of the field on Davis Street. He smells all the wild flowers, chews on all the long grass, and rolls around in everything. He brings home with him many burrs that get stuck to his tail, and grass stains all over. He is my hiking buddy. He makes everything an adventure.
The first book that I learned to read was called The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. This is such a special book to me. The book tells a tale of how a boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk, and the tree would be so very happy. As the boy grew older he would want more, and play less. The tree would give, give, and give. The tree gave it’s entire self to the boy who grew to be an old man. Who needed a seat to sit on, and that was the last thing the tree could be was a seat.
I love this story, because it shows how someone can love someone, or something so much that you could give it all just to help the other person. I find that is how I am with my grandmother, and how she is with me. She gave me this book when I was little, and her love is so much like the giving tree. I have done my best growing up to not be as needy as the little boy, but sometimes I am. She means the world to me, and I never want to take her for granted. She is the greatest roll model ever. She shows how to love and give unconditionally; she is such a beautiful person. She also has shown me the importance of nature, and loved hiking around the woods. She loved taking me to the beach, and to parks. She is the most lovely inside and out.
Grandma and I have a place in the woods behind her house. We call it Pooh’s Bridge, because I had an obsession with Winnie the Pooh. There is a creek that runs through these woods, with fascinating tree roots poking and weaving through the edges where bullfrogs make their home. She had my grandpa build a bridge for us grandkids to play on, enjoy sitting on, and listening to the babbling creek. I used to play in the mud four hours, and get my grandmother in trouble for returning me to my parents a mess. I wrote a Young Authors book in the second grade about my love for Pooh’s Bridge, and how my younger siblings and I would find all sorts of neat sticks and rocks to play with.
As I grew up, I started bringing my friends home from school the back way so that I could show them the magical woods, and Pooh’s bridge. I had found a path that my dad and his siblings used to use to get to the creek from school, that lead directly to the back of my grandparents porch. My friends and I had so much fun we played truth or dare, we found crawdads, and one of my friends even had her first experience with poison oak. We would lie on the bridge and gossip, and get lost in the quietness, and the surreal private corridors of the woods. It was a club. I still know all of these girls, we’ve been friends for 20 years, and I hope to continue for many more years. We all have grown in different directions, but still are all connected by Pooh’s bridge.
