I can see one of my best friends from my kitchen window. He is tall, patient, determined, inspiring, and his major strength is that he is flexible and does not break when he has to bend. All stuff we each of us aim for! My friend is a tree. Actually, he is half a tree.

About 6 years ago the tree that stood beside him (and that must have been terminally ill) was blown down in a storm, his final goodbye was to crash through a fence and block the road. He made his mark and we won't forget him. It was from that moment that I realised the small guy standing next to him (he's only about 30 feet tall) had had only space to be half a tree.

He had grown only on one side. He looked rather like a dancer who had been frozen mid-position. I looked at his sorry body all through that winter as he shivered without leaves and without his friend. He looked to me like he would not recover.

Each season I have been his witness as he has dressed, danced, grown, turned, tired and slept and each year he gets more and more beautiful. I'm pleased to report that right now he is vibrant and he is far from the splinter I was scared he might become. He has growing still to do. He still is half a tree, not in height but in width. But his tenacity, elegance, dignity and grace have pulled me up and onwards on more days than I can count.

He didn't give up. And so neither have I. Let him be our inspiration.

Love from

The room above the garage with half a tree in view.

A Moodscope member.