Susan Writes

    You know what I love most about winter? 

            Not cold.  But I’d rather be cold than hot. 

Not heavy coats.  But I like warm scarves, especially the one that wraps around my neck twice and one of my teen-age Grands knitted and gave me for Christmas.

Not skiffs of snow.  But I love a big snow – to build a snowman, sled down a hill, and make snow cream. 

Not even basketball games. Although basketball is my favorite spectator sport (please don’t tell my soccer-playing Grands.)

            What I love most we can see only now, in the dead of winter.  Only when all the leaves fall from deciduous trees, except oaks that won’t give up their brown leaves until spring.  

What I love is best seen on a blue, not-a-cloud-in-the-sky day. 

            Twigs.  That’s what I love most about winter.  Those tiny shoots at the end of tree branches. Smaller than a number two yellow pencil.  Pliable like a wet jump rope.  Numbered like grains of sand on a beach. 

            I love those delicate, strong twigs.  There doesn’t seem to be a pattern – angles, some overlapping as if leaning on another, some independent soldiers. 

            The designs and the sheer numbers amaze me. Years ago, as teenagers, Son and Daughter rolled their eyes, put on fake smiles, and make closed-mouth, ventriloquist-like comments about Mom’s tree reports. 

Had I not insisted they look up, would they have even seen the very smallest tree branches?  Would they have appreciated that twigs keep the tree living?

            Last week as I looked from the trunk to the very top of a tall elm tree, I realized that twigs represent hope.  The future of that tree.  From twigs and the smaller branches, leaves will sprout this spring.  Tiny holes in the leaves will take in carbon dioxide which will combine with water and using the sun’s energy, make food for the tree to survive and grow.

Maybe it’s a stretch, but aren’t the simplest, sometimes almost insignificant, comments and gifts twigs for people?

            Good morning.  Have a good day. Thank you. That’s a good-looking coat.  I like your boots.  A cup of coffee. A smile.  A pack of favorite gum.  A bowl of hot soup.  An ice cream cone.  A how-are-you-doing text.  A phone call. 

            It seems the little things – the twigs – keep us going.  Give us hope. 

Sometimes I don’t see twigs.  I have to look up. 

Susan R Ray                January 2024

Filed under: Nature, Winter | Tagged: hope, twigs, winter |