A New Spin on Tree Hugging

It was a beautiful spring day and I was sitting on the front porch of my house enjoying a conversation with a friend.  As we chatted, we were blessed to witness a whole new spin on the concept of the ‘tree hugger’ (a slang, sometimes derogatory word for environmentalists).

Along the street came a neighbourhood local (I will call him John).  He was visually gifted, using his white cane to help him navigate his joyful way along the sidewalks.  I had seen John around the neighbourhood several times.  Each and every time he would be talking to himself as he walked along, often singing a tune.  Today was no exception.

As John walked past the house, we could hear his child-like dialogue with himself intermixed with his walking-on-sunshine melodies.  With John’s white cane swishing from side to side in front of him, along the street he continued.

A couple of house down the street there is a property that has a very large tree on the front lawn.  The tree is so large, and the root system is so expansive, that the roots encroach on the sidewalk, actually reducing the amount of sidewalk at this particular point.  As John came up to this part of the sidewalk, swishing his white cane from side to side, his cane got jammed in the root system and the butt end of the cane was thrust into John’s gut.

You could hear John explain… “Oh!...excuse me!”  John thought he had bumped into a person.  John collected himself and in order to get his bearings, he stood on the spot and proceeded to sweep his white cane from side to side in wide swaths to figure out how much room he had to deal with ahead of him.

We watched John feel his surroundings with his cane.  We saw him sweep the edge of the sidewalk that dropped down to the street (so he knew the boundary on his left).  We watched John then sweep his cane to the right and eventually bump back into the tree roots that were encroaching on the sidewalk.  John kept sweeping back and forth for a few seconds to try and get oriented.  He seemed a little confused each time he would hit the tree roots—things did not seem to be making sense to John.

So John put his cane down on the side walk and, with his hands, felt the ground to his right to see what was obstructing him.  We heard John exclaim… “Oh my!”  And then we watched John feel his way up the root system to the base of the tree.  As John began to feel the enormity of the tree with his outstretched arms, he said outloud, “My!...you are a big one!”.  I laughed at John’s joyous discovery.

John then proceeded to stumble his way over the root system, all the time holding on to the tree trunk, and then leaned into the tree and gave the tree a great big hug, all the time smiling.  After giving the tree a big hug, John got himself back to the sidewalk, picked up his white cane, and continued his afternoon stroll.  John stopped after a few steps, turned back in the direction of the tree and was heard saying “We’ll likely bump into each other again!”  Again, I laughed at John’s sense of humor.

My how I wish we all could be so gracious, child-like, accepting and welcoming of life’s daily events as John was.  He turned a potentially maddening situation into one full of joy, love and gratitude.

Shanti, Namaste, Agapé