Look up

When I was small I climbed trees.

At the time I assumed it was something everyone did and something everyone really should do.

I’d greet people hanging upside down from favorite trees in our small plot of woods behind our home.

“If you’re looking for Kate,” my dad would say, “just look up.”

I loved being up high but I also loved the climb. It was an obstacle I wanted to puzzle together. Which notch for which step up?

Some trees were better than others and some trees became more homey and comfortable than others.

But climbing is still something I love to do.

When my family and I went to Alaska I took a special thrill climbing Flat Top – three times.

When I moved to the state of Washington I delighted that my first few steps on the sidewalks took me either up or down – flat wasn’t as easy to come by.

Trees aren’t as comfortable to climb in my 41 year old body but when my oldest boys reached up and grabbed hold of the tree in front of our new home then started to climb, something fluttered in me.

Nothing was missing in our old home. We loved so much about the neighborhood and the yard and yet here we found something I hadn’t expected. A tree for my boys to climb.

They climb the tree often. They wave to neighbors and to their Grandma visiting. I watch them curl into the crook of the middle branch and it settles over me, this is what we needed. A tree to call home.

Just look up.