The Giving Tree

My favorite children's book of all time is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. It's one of the most beautiful stories I have ever read. That includes any adult book. The words and the concept are so simple and because of that, so meaningful. I still remember it being read to us in elementary school by the librarian. I loved the easy rhymes and the beautiful, touching story. I always thought it was so sad that this tree would give up everything it had just to make the boy happy because it loved him so much. And that the boy didn't even seem to realize how much the tree was giving up for him. You learn something about that when you fall in love, but I think it's something you can only really, truly understand when you have children. That willingness to give up everything just to make the person you love happy.

Well, we had a giving tree of our own this Christmas. I wrote about it previously; how we cut it down ourselves and how pretty it was. I didn't realize it was a giver too. Sure, it gave us that warm, fuzzy, glowy feeling you always get at Christmas, but this tree gave more than that. It gave pine needles. Thousands upon thousands of pine needles. I've really never seen anything like it in my life. We took our tree down on Tuesday night. I got a head start while Kurt was at work and began to take off the ornaments, garland, and lights. Every time I took an ornament off, the hook would completely wipe clean the branch on which it had hung. Each time, I'd hear a tinkling as all of the needles on that branch fell to the floor. Choosing to ignore this, I kept on, until the tree was bare. When I finished, about half of the needles from the tree were on the floor. When Kurt came home, we took the tree out to the curb and surveyed the damage: a green carpet lay on the floor. Please take note that we have hardwood floors. The carpet was pine needles. And not soft at all I might add. I started sweeping, making a HUGE pile of needles. I've had real trees before. I've seen what happens when the die. This was not normal. This was out of hand. They were everywhere, in the bookcases, in between floorboards, in the radiator, on the windowsill, in the hallway, on the sofa. I'm sure future tenants will be finding pine needles from this tree in years to come. Here are some photos so you can picture the madness that was Tuesday night. The photos really don't do it justice. But there it is, our very own giving tree, giving us a reminder that trees don't belong inside, no matter how much we wish they did. Well tree, I'm still getting a real one next year. So there.