Tree climbling

Staying close to the trunk

My grandsons and I walked home from school yesterday.

First they discovered a tiny park with two good climbing trees. Each boy scampered up a tree.

I may be the only person in their lives who knows about tree climbing (other possibly than their mother), and this became a good time to impart some basic information. Such as:

• Stay close to the trunk.
• Make sure a branch is strong enough to hold your weight.
• If a branch is dead, don't use it.
• If you absolutely must use use a dead branch, have somewhere else to go quickly, put as little weight as possible on it as briefly as possible, and stay close to the trunk.

When I was growing up, we all climbed trees, and basic principles were passed from older siblings to younger siblings, from neighbor kid to neighbor kid. And nobody I knew ever fell out of a tree.

If you think about it, these are not bad principles for life:

• Stay close to the trunk. Stay close to what you can trust -- for me that's God -- Love and Truth.
• Make sure a branch is strong enough to hold your weight. Consider thoughtfully where your next step should be.
• If a limb is dead, don't trust it. If other people's opinions pull you away from your basic values, don't trust them.
• If you absolutely must use a dead limb, keep it brief and move on. If the best of two choices isn't comfortable for you, take it and look for a better choice as soon as possible.

Later the boys found lilacs in bloom on the railroad right of way. They picked a small bouquet for their mom. They added redbud blossoms from their tree at home.

Redbuds, jonquil, and one lilac

Looks to me like their love for beauty and thoughtfulness for their mom is keeping them close to what is strong and sturdy in their lives.