Plant a Tree

Plant a tree

A simple invitation

The oak trees arrive in their black plastic

Casings

And one by one are planted

The groundskeeper approaches me one day

Would you like to plant the last oak?

I walk the grounds

Feel the waters moving below

Ask each place

Are you ready to receive an oak?

I forget too

For days

About the oak and land and sky

As the rains pour hard on this earth

Then the day comes

I take a shovel, a wheelbarrow

A bucket of fresh cedar chips

Some fencing and bamboo stakes

I pass the blackberry forest, the valley with its hints of manure

I arrive at the site

Between apple tree and blue berry bush

Right next to the neighbors fence

I dig, I harvest rocks

Some the size of my hand

The clay soil sticks to my shovel

The smell of soil invites me

I bury a finger

I can almost taste the moisture

The water molecules that blend to make

This living tissue called earth

The oak tree seems to know its life is going to change

I feel its roots reaching

The longing for water, for community, for nutrient

The longing to stand independent and inter-connected

With the life of this place

The silence of its presence

Startles the neighbors cows

Who are watching

Welcoming the new tree home

They snarl and grunt

And seem to smile at this initiation ceremony

The little one pressing hard against its mother’s udders

Now it is time to water it in

The spigots have been turned off to prevent freezing

No rain in the forecast for days

I go home

And find an empty gallon milk jug

I fill it in our kitchen sink

I walk out again in the

Dew soaked grasses

I water the oak

It drinks and drinks

The gurgling of the milk jug

The community of cows

And I—too

Drink in the new oak

May your roots make a life here

Your trunk find its stability

May you grow and create

An incredible shade

That nourishes the lives of many

May you drink up the precious waters of life