Majestic Trees

The next time you are out for a walk in the woods, take a moment to look up. You might be amazed at what you find.

Beyond blue skies or puffy white clouds, you might find something of interest from time to time. Recently on a walk in the woods we saw an Eastern Towhee, a Red-headed Woodpecker, a Pileated Woodpecker, an American Tree Swallow, a Chipping Sparrow, a Barred, and squirrels…lots and lots of squirrels.

Too often, we look only at ground-level. We scan the horizon or the path ahead, never taking time to look up to what might be above. It’s unfortunate, really. There is so much that goes on around us but we limit our field of site to the first five feet of elevation off the ground.

During our most recent hiking trip, we discovered one of the strangest things we’ve ever found: A tree had grown into itself.

Something happened years ago to cause a limb to grow out of the bottom of the tree and turn back into the trunk of the tree, grafting itself into it’s original host.

We were in an Ohio State Park on a well-traveled path. Many people were in the park on this beautiful day. I had my camera pointed up. I marveled at this formation. And not one single person stopped to look at the tree. Not a soul. Everyone was busy traveling to the next great destination in the park. In their hurry to the next amazing waterfall, the next great vista, they were missing a marvel of nature just a few feet above their heads.

Keep looking up. You’ll never know what you might see. And for that, I’m extremely grateful.