I go to the gym on a regular basis, usually three or four days a week in the morning before I ride. This week I have some medical appointments and procedures; just routine checking up stuff. If you have a chequered health history as I do I am grateful that the medical profession and our health care system see fit to keep and eye on me and make sure everything is as it should be. The gym has a nice large windowed room that overlooks a park, and I do my stretching there after my workout. I started to look at the trees. Perhaps because I am in a medical review season I started to wonder which tree would represent me. Which tree would I be?
This one is just a youngster so that would not be me.
This one is very attractive and a bit more mature but still not as advanced in age as me.
Then my eye fell on this one. This has seen some tough winters and some gale force winds. It has stood there for many years and parts of this old tree are not doing well at all. I may be older but all my working parts are still working pretty well. Surprisingly I do not suffer too many aches and pains and I am able to be very active. This tree is not me either.
Then I found the tree I could relate to. This conifer is an evergreen that has stood through many winters and survived. It is a bit unique in that it has three trunks. That’s not exactly the usual form. It may not be blazingly robust but it is in pretty good shape overall. This tree is me. I don’t have three trunks but I do have some replaced body parts and a few oddities and I have certainly survived a number of “winters”. So this is the tree that I would say is the closest to me. This tree reminds me of a quote of W.B.Yeats. “I am of a healthy long lived race, and our minds improve with age.”
Which tree would you be? Leave me a comment!
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