A Tale of Two Trees

Memorial Day weekend at my house means a four day holiday for Brian. Something about making up for the bank holidays that he couldn't take during tax season. And a four day weekend usually means yard work, which he loves to do.

This weekend, he has been trimming trees and bushes...everything from the oak in the front yard to the lilac bushes in the back. The back is getting special attention as we are in the process of replacing our fence. So as Brian is trimming things, he is being very mindful of the fence line.

As I said, our front yard has a beautiful oak tree. The trunk is straight and true and it has beautiful dark green glossy leaves that provide fabulous shade for the house. In the fall, the leaves turn a beautiful dark burgundy. It doesn't drop crazy things in my yard. It is a clasically beautiful tree and it "behaves" the way a tree should "behave."

In the back yard, along our fenceline, is a mulberry tree. It is sandwiched between two snowball bushes, and it was here when we moved in. I have no idea if the former owners purposed for it to be where it is, or if Mother Nature did, but it grows on our property. In the seven years we have been here, it has grown to be quite massive. It provides a good deal of shade for our yard. It also produces a bumper crop of mulberries every year much to the delight of my children and many backyard birds in my neighborhood. One year, we even made old-fashioned spiced mulberry jam with its bounty.

This tree has become of interest to us because of its proximity to the fenceline. Upon close inspection, Brian noticed that it is not one tree, but three trees that have grown up next to each other. The trunks wind around each other and the branches are all intermingled. Our first proposition was to remove two of the trees and leave one...making a much more tidy looking tree and giving it plenty of room to clear the fence.

Friday afternoon Brian came to me and said, "I don't know, Hon. I worry that if I cut off those two extra parts of that tree it won't look right anymore. It will be bare and sparse and patchy in places." He made an excellent point.

And now, dear reader, we come to the point where I am sure you are saying to yourself, "What in the WORLD does this have to do with anything at all?!?!"

Well, the other thing that happened this holiday weekend is my baby brother graduated from high school. And high school graduations mean extended family get-togethers, which brings me to another type of "tree." The family tree.

Some of us have family trees that are like the oak in my front yard. They have one trunk that is straight and true. They have evenly spaced limbs and branches. They are, to the naked eye, uncomplicated and easy to explain. These family trees "do what family trees are supposed to do." And they are beautiful.

My family tree resembles the mulberry tree in my backyard.  It is a complicated structure with interwoven trunks, branches, and leaves.  But ultimately, it does what it is supposed to do as well.  And it is also beautiful.

So I'm done wishing that I could prune my tree to resemble the oak.  I can't.  Not without losing much of the beauty and purpose of the tree.